July 16, 2012
news
The American Medical Association (AMA) is working with 60 various organizations in supporting an effort that will aim to help physicians’ better use health insurer-provided data reports as tools to enhance the quality and value of patient care. As part of the effort, the AMA created the "Guidelines for Reporting Physician Data" with input from public and private health insurers, state and specialty medical societies, health standard organizations, and employer and consumer coalitions.
June 21, 2012 Ben Rooks
article
In 2011 the industry actually saw fewer transformational deals than we would have expected, given the attention paid to the sector of late. In fact, the three largest deals we saw weren’t one company buying another, but rather private equity firms buying their way into HCIT, suggesting, perhaps, that the market is more attractive to those outside it seeking to enter than to those who are already within and seeking to grow larger. Clearly, this wasn’t the rule, but it was definitely a trend.
June 21, 2012 John DeGaspari
article
Greenway Medical Technologies Inc. has built a solid reputation based on identifying a market niche and serving its customers well. From day one, its focus has been trained squarely on the ambulatory market, with a broad range of solution sets and services. With product and service offerings cover plenty of bases, the company has expanded its flagship integrated EHR and practice management solution with a portfolio that includes solutions for data exchange, revenue cycle management, mobile computing, patient portal, clinical research, imaging, and dictation. Moreover, the company’s philosophy has been to serve up its solution sets in any form that the customer prefers.
June 20, 2012 Mark Hagland
article
At a time when analytics capability will be critical for patient care organizations in everything their leaders attempt, from meeting meaningful use requirements under the HITECH program to satisfying a very broad range of healthcare reform-related mandates, could any IT vendors be better-positioned than smart vendors specializing in analytics, like the California-based MedeAnalytics? Hardly.
June 11, 2012
news
Recent research has determined that a set of computer models can predict the negative side effects in hundreds of current drugs, based on the similarity between their chemical structures and those molecules known to cause side effects. The conclusion was driven by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco, and will appear in a paper in the journal Nature.
June 4, 2012
news
According to a study from the University of Washington (UW), through thorough analysis of medical records from patients, statisticians have created a statistical model for predicting what other medical problems a patient might encounter. This, according to UW, would be similar to how Netflix recommends movies and TV shows for viewers. The algorithm makes predictions based on what a patient has already experienced as well as the experiences of other patients showing a similar medical history.
May 30, 2012 John DeGaspari
article
The use of social media to engage patients and their caregivers has become a top priority at St. Louis (Mo.) Children’s Hospital, which, according to marketing manager Kay Franks, has helped the organization track its referrals and increased the active participation of patients’ parents and caregivers.
May 22, 2012
news
According to a new survey from healthcare business intelligence vendor Wolters Kluwer Health, Americans trust information about their health that appears online. The survey, which was conducted by IPSOS, which talked to 1,000 consumers in the U.S. ages 18 and older, says three in ten Americans report they “always” or “frequently” turn to the internet to find answers to medical questions.
May 15, 2012 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
The CIOs who participated in a panel that tackled strategies for creating data warehouses at the Healthcare Informatics Executive Summit on May 7 largely agreed that the main challenges in doing so centered around issues of governance and integration. “I think that governance for us is still the greatest problem,” said Patricia Skarulis, vice president, information systems and CIO, Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center. “I mean it in the sense that there are still some areas where [departments] withhold their data from putting it into the warehouse.”
May 1, 2012
news
According to a new report from the Orem, Utah-based KLAS, more healthcare providers will be making business intelligence (BI) purchases over the next three years. Authors of the report, Business Intelligence Perception 2012: A Wave is Coming, say the energy around healthcare BI is increasing at a frenetic pace; with half of providers looking to buy or replace their BI solutions in the next three years.
April 27, 2012
news
Researchers from The State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo will use IBM analytics technology to study genetic and environment factors that contribute to multiple sclerosis (MS) symptoms. According to the Armonk, N.Y.-based tech company, SUNY researchers will tap into IBM's analytics technology to develop algorithms for big data containing genomic datasets to uncover critical factors that speed up disease progression in MS patients.
