February 12, 2013 Mark Hagland
Dr. Jim Levin was both a clinical informatics pioneer and a true mensch. Well do I remember the first time I met him, four years ago, when in the spring of 2009, as I was meeting with executives and leaders from across the UPMC health system in Pittsburgh, to find out what UPMC leaders were doing to leverage information technology for systemic performance improvement.
February 6, 2013 Mark Hagland
When Carolyn Clancy, M.D., announced on Jan. 31 that she was leaving the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which she had headed for almost exactly 10 years (she became that agency’s director on Feb. 5, 2003, after previously working at the agency as director of its Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research), it signaled the end of an era.
February 5, 2013 Mark Hagland
I was fascinated last month by a New York Times article I read about an initiative tying physician pay in New York City’s public hospitals to the outcomes measures those hospitals will be paid against under healthcare reform.
February 3, 2013 Mark Hagland
CIOs, CMIOs and other healthcare leaders have a real opportunity to help shape community-wide healthcare delivery performance improvement initiatives: just ask Jane Brock, M.D., of the Colorado Foundation for Medical Care, that state's QIO.
January 22, 2013 Mark Hagland
HIMSS Analytics' recent press release on the acceleration in the pace of EHR adoption is encouraging, but then again, the numbers could be read in different ways, depending on one's perspective
January 16, 2013 Mark Hagland
Visiting senior executives at the UPMC health system in Pittsburgh last week, some of the thoughts I’ve been having lately around what creates and advances a culture of innovation were validated and confirmed for me.
January 7, 2013 Mark Hagland
It's so easy to go straight to quotes from classic movies, isn't it? On the other hand, this one from Bette Davis just seems to fit perfectly, right now: "Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night!" But the uncertainly in Washington shouldn’t delay healthcare IT leaders' work building the new healthcare.
December 26, 2012 Mark Hagland
A recent industry survey highlighted the possibilities and pitfalls in creating ACOs, and the potentially scope-limiting factor of any collaborative's information technology resources in moving forward on accountable care delivery and financing
December 20, 2012 Mark Hagland
The dramatic December 19 announcement by Allscripts that its CEO, Glen Tullman, had resigned, and that a replacement for Tullman had already been named, capped a year of drama, not only for the Chicago-based software vendor, but for all of healthcare and healthcare IT. A look back at a year of whirlwind developments.
December 18, 2012 Mark Hagland
As I write this, President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner are involved in complex, perhaps rather tense, negotiations over the so-called fiscal cliff and what to do about federal taxes, revenues and programs. In the past couple of days, the news reports and rumors have changed almost hourly, with estimates of possible Medicare cuts to providers shifting quite frequently. Whatever the end result of this process, analytics-facilitated continuous clinical performance improvement will soon be crucial to provider survival.
