February 27, 2013 Gabriel Perna
blog
Those of us who have watched a loved one spend the last few years of their life in a nursing home know the pain and helplessness that comes from this experience. Studies have found communication breakdowns between staff can lead to lower quality-of-care. According to a University of Missouri researcher, the possible solution to this problem? Healthcare technology adoption
February 26, 2013 John DeGaspari
news
Lower-income patients want to communicate electronically with their doctors, but the revolution in health care technology often is not accessible to them, due to inadequate health information services within the health care clinics they frequent, according to a survey by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco.
February 22, 2013 Gabriel Perna
article
In 2012, Leonard Kish, a health IT strategist, made a bold proclamation about a new “blockbuster drug of the century.” The drug Kish was referring to can’t be found in stores or in a scientific laboratory. Instead, he said, it was something conceptual, adding that if healthcare organizations of all kinds made use of that “drug,” the results would be astounding.
February 6, 2013 Gabriel Perna
article
Backed by a study from the Office for the National Coordinator of Health IT (ONC), researchers at the Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger Health System and the National Organization for Research at the University of Chicago (NORC) recently discovered that patients can help make the information in their EHR more accurate. These results were touted in a recent webinar from the National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC).
January 8, 2013 David Raths
article
At the Jan. 8 Health IT Policy Committee meeting, Farzad Mostashari, M.D., national coordinator for health IT, and Paul Tang, M.D., vice chair of the committee, outlined some priorities for the year ahead, including a glimpse of what Stage 4 of meaningful use might address.
December 12, 2012 Gabriel Perna
article
A recent study conducted by researchers at the Oakland, Calif.-based integrated healthcare organization, Kaiser Permanente, found that users of Kaiser’s personal health record (PHR), My Health Manager, visited their doctor’s office 16 percent than those who weren’t users of it. One of the study’s authors explains why this result shocked him and what it might mean.
December 11, 2012 David Raths
news
Several months after winding down a more ambitious state-level health information exchange architecture, the state of Tennessee has launched the Tennessee Direct Project, a scaled-down exchange based on the Direct secure messaging platform.
December 10, 2012 Gabriel Perna
news
The University of Utah Health Care, a four-hospital, 10-clinic health system, announced it has added an online tool that allows patients to score their satisfaction with their physicians. The physicians will be ranked on 40,000 patient surveys based on nine questions. Utah Health Care claims it is the first system in the nation to do something like this.
September 13, 2012 Gabriel Perna
article
In honor of National Health IT week, the National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC) recently hosted a webinar about the challenges and successes of implementing health IT in rural and underserved communities. The webinar featured insights from Chantal Worzala, director of policy for the American Hospital Association (AHA), and Earle Rugg, CEO of the Rural Health IT Corporation. One of the main themes was the issue of averting a digital divide between rural and urban communities, something that has already begun.
September 12, 2012
news
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a final rule that will enable spectrum for Medical Body Area Networks (MBANs). MBANs are low-power wideband networks consisting of multiple body-worn sensors that transmit a variety of patient data to a control device. MBAN devices aim to free patients from cumbersome cables that tether them to their hospital bed. The FCC will allow for the allocation of 40 MHz of spectrum for the development of MBAN devices in the 2360–2400 MHz band.
September 5, 2012 Gabriel Perna
blog
Everywhere I turn lately, I see some kind of new patient engagement-centered platform being touted by vendors, providers, and/or payers. A recent conversation I had with Richard Ferrans, M.D., vice president and chief medical officer at Presence Health, helped open my eyes as to why everyone wants to get in on the patient engagement bandwagon.
August 10, 2012
news
According to a study from researchers at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, medical group practices can reduce costs for patients with diabetes by investing in improved quality of care.
