August 14, 2012
news
Texas Health Resources, the Arlington, Texas-based large health system, is set to roll out a health information exchange from Salt Lake City-based Medicity. The HIE will exchange data throughout Texas Health’s 25 inpatient, transitional, rehabilitation and short-stay hospitals, 18 outpatient facilities, and more than 5,500 affiliated physicians.
August 13, 2012
news
The National Quality Forum (NQF) has endorsed 12 quality measures, promoting effective patient-centered care and effective communication in relation to the disparities and cultural competency of meeting the needs of a diverse patient population. Seven of the measures came from an American Medical Association (AMA) resource, called the “Communication Climate Assessment Toolkit.”
August 13, 2012
news
McLean, Va.-based Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), has completed its acquisition of maxIT Healthcare Holdings, Inc., a healthcare IT (Information Technology) consulting firm based in Westfield, Ind. SAIC says maxIT’s 1,300 employees will join SAIC's health solutions business unit (HSBU).
August 10, 2012 Mark Hagland
article
Aetna's Charles Kennedy, M.D., heads up a division of that health insurer focused on collaborative development of accountable care organizations with hospitals and physician groups. He offers his perspectives on where accountable care is going, and what provider IT leaders need to do to move their sector forward.
August 9, 2012
news
New research from the Burlington, Vt.-based CapSite looked at the medical device integration (MDI) market, indicating that 54 percent hospitals are looking to purchasing MDI solutions. Of those hospitals, 40 percent say quality improvement is the primary reason for this investment.
August 7, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
New South Wales (NSW) Health in Australia has completed the first phase of an ambitious project to create a statewide health imaging exchange. Healthcare accounts for 27 percent of total government spending in Australia, and with an aging population with increased chronic conditions, there is potential for an enterprise image repository (EIR) to improve diagnosis and lead to better patient outcomes.
August 6, 2012 Joe Marion
blog
I recently read an article in Advance for Imaging & Radiation Oncology, July/Aug 2012 by Shannon Werb, Chief Strategy Officer/COO for Acuo Technologies, entitled “The case for VNA.” Shannon makes the case for differentiating between a PACS vendor VNA (Vendor Neutral Archive) and a VNA offered by a truly independent vendor. The differentiation is made on how interoperable the VNA is in terms of working with all vendor solutions (i.e. “Vendor Neutral”), noting that some so-called VNA’s may merely be an extension of the PACS vendor’s PACS archive.
August 2, 2012 Mark Hagland
blog
A new Commonwealth Fund study underscores what industry-leading pioneers have always known: that the success of any EHR implementation hinges very strongly on the leadership shown by senior organizationa leadersl. What revelations in this study suggest what time-pressured leaders at non-pioneer organizations need to do now to meet MU- and reform-related mandates?
July 24, 2012 David Raths
blog
Ninety-eight percent of Denmark's general practitioners and all pharmacies and hospitals use a national health data network, as do 74 percent of specialists, according to a recent Accenture study. A national e-health portal acts as a single access point to healthcare services for both citizens and health professionals.
July 24, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
Experts at a Blueprint Healthcare IT discussion last week warned that the Field of Dreams strategy of "build it and they will come" won't necessarily work when it comes to physician adoption of a health information exchange (HIE). Lack of physician usage of an HIE portal was the No. 1 pitfall when it came to HIEs that was mentioned in the webinar, "Top Ten Ways an HIE Can Go Wrong".
