May 20, 2013 David Raths
An informatics research team finds that although the technology exists to build a robust national learning health system, a multitude of business, political and social roadblocks stand in the way.
May 20, 2013 Tim Tolan
When it’s time to negotiate the offer with a future employer, the last thing you want to do is drop a bomb regarding a future bonus or other form of compensation you will be receiving after your projected start date. If you choose to wait to disclose this information thinking it might help your cause, think again. You just took your problem and dropped it off at your future employer's doorstep - talk about an awkward situation.
May 17, 2013 Gabriel Perna
An opinion piece from Jonathan Bush, the CEO, President, and Chairman of the Board of athenahealth Inc. recently caught my attention. Bush was advocating for better venture capital investment in healthcare IT and made a pertinent point about how fee-for-service models of reimbursement have stifled innovation.
May 16, 2013 David Raths
Baylor Quality Alliance, an affiliate of Baylor Health Care System, is creating its own health information exchange and will use Humedica's MinedShare to extract and normalize clinical and administrative data and provide detailed analytics. BQA will also participate in the American Medical Group Association’s (AMGA) Anceta Collaborative to enhance shared learning with other AMGA members.
May 13, 2013 Mark Hagland
The May 6 announcement that the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) was calling for a one-year extension of Stage 2 of meaningful use has pushed the association deeper into the waters of policy and regulatory development. Can CHIME avoid becoming involved in partisan politics in its new push on MU?
May 13, 2013
Behavioral interviewing tells us a lot about a person – especially their perceptions of themselves, their actions and experiences. In a behavioral interview, the interviewer asks probing questions and the way they are answered can often be the best way to predict a candidate's future job performance. In other words, what you see and hear is a sort of preview of upcoming attractions.
May 9, 2013 Mark Hagland
In the second decade of the 21st century, amid the new transparency in everything, the days when issues like hospital pricing-and clinical outcomes-were obscure topics, are nearly over. What are the implications on both the pricing and outcomes sides of the equation?
May 9, 2013 Gabriel Perna
What can analytics do for you? That’s the question health IT leaders have to be asking themselves in 2013. From what I’ve seen in the news, and from talking with Mark Van Kooy, M.D., director of clinical informatics at the Aspen Advisers, a Pittsburgh-based consulting firm, many are looking at the big picture and answering that question by saying, “A lot.”
May 8, 2013 Mark Hagland
In speaking recently with industry experts and healthcare IT leaders about the topic of strategizing around vendor contracts, I had a particularly interesting conversation with Fran Turisco of Aspen Advisors, that underscored for me how vital it will be for CIOs, CMIOs, and other healthcare IT leaders to let go of the mental constructs of the past when it comes to laying the IT foundations for the new healthcare.
May 8, 2013 Rajiv Leventhal
Nurses are often the “glue that holds everything together,” acting as the go between doctors and patients. They wear several hats and play multiple roles in our healthcare system. National Nurses Week is a great time to appreciate their contributions as well as recognize how they could be leveraged for even more.
May 6, 2013 David Raths
Sepsis, a dangerous condition caused by the immune system’s response to a serious infection, is one of the toughest challenges hospitals face. It causes 17 percent of all hospital deaths and is the leading cause of death in non-cardiac intensive-care units. Additionally, the incidence of sepsis is increasing in the United States. But healthcare informatics researchers at two Philadelphia hospitals are working on ways to quicken response times and improve outcomes.
May 3, 2013 Joe Marion
I have been a loyal user of Nuance products for many years in support of my own business operations, including the Dragon speech recognition applications, as well as the OmniPage OCR, PDF Converter, and PaperPort applications for document management. As a loyal user, Nuance has occasionally included me in several “beta” evaluations of their software, including recently OmniPage Ultimate. Having used this application over the past several weeks, there are several new features that I believe have interesting consequences for healthcare.
May 2, 2013 David Raths
Like country singer Willie Nelson, regional extension centers (RECs) in rural states are on the road again. Several RECs, which are helping primary care physicians achieve meaningful use, are undertaking statewide road shows to explain the benefits of connecting with health information exchanges to help meet Stage 2 of meaningful use.
April 30, 2013 Gabriel Perna
When Norman Rockwell painted, it was a direct representation of life during a simpler time. What would he think of life today—specifically within the world of healthcare? It’s a question worth pondering, after a recent study revealed that doctors spent 40 percent of their time behind a computer, compared to only 12 percent in direct contact with a patient.
April 30, 2013 Joe Marion
A week ago while on vacation in Florida I experienced another episode of vertigo. For those of you who have never experienced vertigo, you are fortunate! Long story short I ended up in the ER, and then admitted to the hospital. The stay was necessary from the physician's perspective, as they did a CT scan while in the ER, with inconclusive findings, which again in their mind necessitated admission and an MRI/MRA scan (which of course couldn't be scheduled until the next day!).
April 29, 2013 Mark Hagland
It was fascinating recently to hear Melvin C. Almodovar, M.D. and Peter C. Laussen, M.D. describe the clinical transformation work that began at Boston Children’s Hospital under their leadership; indeed, that case study has tremendous implications for specialized clinical informatics development going forward, on a very broad scale.
April 28, 2013 David Raths
Judy Murphy, R.N., deputy national coordinator for programs and policy at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, said criticisms of the EHR incentive program because it hasn’t yet led to widespread interoperability are misguided. Interoperability “is going to be a progression, a journey," she said.
April 26, 2013 Rajiv Leventhal
As healthcare records move to electronic systems, data routinely collected as part of medical care hold the promise to dramatically increase the opportunities for learning and improving care on a national scale, in addition to reducing costs. But collecting routine data with every patient encounter simply doesn’t happen enough, and that’s something that needs to change.
April 25, 2013 John DeGaspari
The findings of a comprehensive data breach report released by Verizon this week suggests that no industry is immune to cybercrime, and that the experiences of other affected industries can provide lessons for healthcare providers to safeguard their data.
April 25, 2013 David Raths
Although there is strong interest in leveraging clinical data to supplement data collected for other purposes, including research, patient safety, and public health reporting, the use of EHR data for supplemental purposes has been limited due to a lack of uniformity in the terminology and definitions of data elements across EHRs. An ONC work group hopes to change that.
