February 15, 2013 John DeGaspari
article
New technology innovations have clearly captured the imaginations of clinicians and patients alike, and provider organizations will see big demands on bandwidth, which will put pressure on provider organizations to upgrade their IT infrastructure. At the same time, hospitals, medical groups, and health systems will need to continue to maintain data security and privacy. The upshot is that patient care organizations can’t afford not to make investments in infrastructure—often a tough sell to the hospital boards that control budgets—just to stay one step ahead of new demands.
February 12, 2013 Gabriel Perna
news
The Washington D.C.-based eHealth Initiative (eHI) has unveiled a resource guide, aiming to help cancer patients, their families, caregivers, and support networks better understand what digitals tools and technologies are available to treat and cope with the disease. The Health IT Cancer Resources Guide lists 76 tools ranging from mobile applications to web sites to social networks that aim to improve cancer care.
February 7, 2013 Gabriel Perna
news
eClinicalWorks, a Westborough, Mass.-based EHR vendor, has announced it's launching a patient engagement-focused initiative on the back of a $25 million investment in the area over the next 12 months. eClinicalWorks, which boasts of eight million users for its patient portal, says it will focus on developing a mobile app for patients that gives patients access to their own and family electronic health records (EHRs).
February 6, 2013 Frank Myeroff
article
Over the past year, my colleagues and I have worked with numerous companies and healthcare facilities and based on their needs and our experience, some things are changing in the way that top talent is recruited, contracted and hired. Here are five healthcare recruiting trends that we see emerging for 2013.
January 28, 2013 Gabriel Perna
article
Whether it’s through better communication or simple amenities, even the most optimistic leader at a hospital will tell you there is no perfect path to perfect patient satisfaction. However, thanks to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) mandatory Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) program, the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) initiative, hospitals across the country are certainly going to try to achieve that formula.
January 8, 2013 Mark Hagland
news
Telehealth activity is growing apace, according to a new report from InMedica, a division of IMS Research; in fact, the researchers at InMedica predict that the global telehealth business will grow by 55 percent in 2013
January 7, 2013 Gabriel Perna
news
Athenahealth, a Watertown, Mass.-based provider of EHR cloud-based software, has announced it has acquired Epocrates, a San Mateo, Calif. Based provider of mobile health (mHealth) point-of-care clinical applications. The deal is valued at $11.75 per share, in cash, for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $293 million, and it’s athenahealth’s biggest ever.
December 18, 2012 by Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
When the University of Missouri Health System sought to optimize its bedside documentation workflows, it chose to enhance its current medication administration devices to allow mobile point-of-care documentation, an innovation that has led to a dramatic advance in speed to documentation of patient data, ultimately improving patient care.
December 14, 2012 John DeGaspari
article
Data breaches are a large and costly threat for healthcare providers, which so far have been unable to cope with existing and new challenges of securing patient data. That’s a key finding of the Third Annual Benchmark Study on Patient Privacy & Data Security, released by the Traverse City, Mich.-based Ponemon Institute and sponsored by ID Experts, Portland, Ore.
December 12, 2012 Gabriel Perna
article
This week, at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s (ONC) third annual meeting, held in Washington, D.C., a pair of panelists looked at the various opportunities of patient engagement, while exploring current government and private-led initiatives and technologies.
December 12, 2012 Gabriel Perna
news
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently launched an education initiative and set of online tools that aim to provide healthcare organizations various tips on how to protect patients’ protected health information (PHI) when using mobile devices such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones. The initiative, Mobile Devices: Know the RISKS. Take the STEPS. PROTECT and SECURE Health Information, offers videos, easy-to-download fact sheets, and posters to promote best ways to safeguard patient health information.
December 11, 2012 John DeGaspari
blog
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.
