December 16, 2012 David Raths
Golden Valley Health Centers, a federally qualified health center system serving the Central Valley of California, describes some of the benefits of persistence with CPOE implementation.
December 12, 2012 Mark Hagland
As the healthcare industry moves forward to meet the demands of purchasers and payers for higher-quality, more effective, more cost-effective patient care with fewer errors and better care coordination, it is sobering to read the results of recent studies that show that improving clinical performance does not necessarily lead to the prevention of avoidable readmissions.
December 11, 2012 John DeGaspari
With the rise in popularity of tablet computers in the workplace, it’s interesting to see what’s behind its uptake, as well as the challenges the BYOD trend brings to healthcare CIOs.
December 7, 2012 Mark Hagland
The October issue of The American Journal of Managed Care included a fascinating article, "Implementation of EHR-Based Strategies to Improve outpatient CAD Care," in which a group of researchers documented how EHR-facilitated physician alerts alone aren’t enough to improve outcomes for patients with such chronic illnesses as coronary artery disease. It turns out, success requires a savvy combination of financial incentives, IT alerts, and good data analysis.
December 7, 2012 Gabriel Perna
In a recent webinar, an analyst for Frost & Sullivan talked about how thanks to a variety of factors, there has never been a better opportunity for mHealth applications to change the way chronic diseases are treated. After listening to this webinar, I can’t say I disagree.
December 5, 2012 Michael Craige
Rapid improvements in technology, semantic data structures, informatics professional collaboration and sequencing technologies are not necessarily the only gaps needed for the realization of personalized medicine (improving genomic and phenotypic data integration) but these must be taken into account on how best to exploit the opportunities to facilitate personalized medicine.
December 3, 2012 Pete Rivera
The fun begins when you look at the various CIO personalities out there. They don’t always fit the corporate climate or mesh well with the CEO’s personality. Personalities and stress factors all contribute to decision making and if you take a step back, you often can get an education, as well as some entertainment value out of it.
December 3, 2012 Joe Marion
Well, the 2012 RSNA (Radiological Society of North America – www.RSNA.org) is history. Having now had the weekend to think about the event, my initial reaction is that the meeting is even more a dichotomy of messages.
November 30, 2012 Gabriel Perna
More hospitals and healthcare systems have adopted online ER reservations bringing a popular service in the dining industry to healthcare. However while some see it as a good way to increase patient population scores, others are a little more leery.
November 30, 2012 Gwen Darling
Since Thanksgiving, I have heard the same comment from countless Healthcare IT employers. “Well…we do have several critical needs, but with the holidays and all…we’re just going to wait until January to post the positions.” If you're interested in attracting the best of the best, you'll rethink that strategy, and here's why.
November 29, 2012 Mark Hagland
As RSNA 2012 wound toward its close at Chicago’s McCormick Place Convention Center, the atmosphere this year seemed to be one of nervous anticipation, with many attendees looking for signs and signals of all kinds. For many in radiology and imaging informatics, the challenges seemed daunting. But could new technologies, intelligently implemented, be a part of a broader solution?
November 28, 2012 David Raths
Among key meaningful use challenges for physician offices are vendor product nuances, workflows that must be redesigned, and staff roles that needed to be redefined.
November 27, 2012 Gabriel Perna
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. In healthcare, there are many places where that saying applies. For instance, the journey of an engaged population begins with a single informed patient. But how do you get from the beginning to the end – or at least some semblance of engagement? NeHC has created a guide to do just that.
November 26, 2012 Joe Bormel
Self-service technology is readily available to healthcare providers of all sizes. Much of it is modular so you can implement it incrementally. You can build patient loyalty through reducing wait times by using the convenience of self-service registration, check in, and empowering patients to schedule their own appointments. There are many other benefits, too. For instance, you can significantly reduce denials, automate co-payments, lower your administrative costs, with more to come. Are you ready?
November 26, 2012 Mark Hagland
Meeting this morning during RSNA 2012 with executives from the Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare, one thing was clear: those patient care organizations with an imaging informatics strategy—perhaps almost any imaging informatics strategy??—are already light years ahead of their peer organizations whose senior executives have no such strategy.
November 22, 2012 Mark Hagland
What seems obvious, on both the macro and micro levels, is that physicians can no longer practice medicine effectively without strong, effective clinical decision support tools at the point of care. Case in point: a close friend’s holiday emergency room experience.
November 20, 2012 Joe Marion
Well, it’s almost that time again! The annual Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) is the largest radiology meeting of the year, and typically the place where vendors tend to introduce new technology. This year should be no exception, and it should address some interesting areas as both technology users and vendors cope with a changing healthcare regulatory environment.
November 17, 2012 Mark Hagland
I found the Nov. 13 InformationWeek commentary by Mathew J. Schwartz, titled “Petraeus Fallout: 5 Gmail Security Facts,” to be both entertaining and instructive. As Schwartz puts it simply and eloquently, “Want to avoid a fall from grace? Then ensure you’re not the chief of a spy agency who coordinates your extramarital affairs using a free webmail service. That’s one information security takeaway from the ongoing probe into the former director of the CIA, David Petraeus, who resigned after 14 months on the job.”
November 15, 2012 Gabriel Perna
More healthcare systems are beginning to mine patient data for marketing purposes. This trend could increase with the rapid adoption of EHRs and leave many providers with an ethical dilemma.
November 14, 2012 Mark Hagland
One thing seemed clear last week at the AMIA 2012 Conference: physician informaticists are helping to move the discussion—and the solutions—forward towards new solutions in the physician documentation arena
