January 4, 2012 Gabriel Perna
article
The National Database for Autism Research (NDAR) is becoming a one-stop shop of sorts for autism researchers. Most recently, the Bethesda, Md.-based government agency, which has created a scalable informatics platform, added the Autism Genetics Research Exchange (AGRE) to its database.
November 17, 2011 John Degaspari
blog
When it comes to computer hardware and software applications, hospital CIOs are have more choices than ever to make. And the decisions they make have serious implications for the hospital’s bottom line—for better or for worse.
September 27, 2011 Mark Hagland
article
A cardiologist by training and medical practice, Michael Bakerman, M.D. has enjoyed a varied career. After 18 years in clinical practice, Dr. Bakerman received his master’s in medical management degree in 1998, and beginning in 1999, he spent several years working for different consulting firms, working in areas of medical management and leadership consulting, and then shifting more fully into clinical informatics consulting work
July 26, 2011 Mark Hagland
blog
I found an article in the July 13 Journal of the American Medical Association to be fascinating, as it validates what many experts have been saying for some time now, and that is that, when it comes to the large data and information superstructures that are being built now in healthcare, there is great potential going forward for improvements to patient safety and care quality that sometimes can’t be fully appreciated at the outset of their development.
July 20, 2011 Jennifer Prestigiacomo
article
Industry experts and HIE leaders have moved past early “model”-based debates to focus on creating core and value-added services, standardizing the meaning of the clinical data, and simplifying point to point connections necessary for information to flow between the HIE and providers EHRs.
June 3, 2011 David Raths
blog
There always seemed to be a high level of skepticism from CIOs and physicians representing hospitals and health systems whenever representatives of payer organizations make presentations about how their use of information technology had the potential to transform healthcare by engaging patients. But as we enter the era HIEs and ACOs, providers may find themselves working more closely with insurers than ever before on wellness, care management, and clinical analytics.
May 26, 2011 Tim Tolan
article
Just using the traditional interview questions that we've used for years does not give you the hiring manager enough information about the candidate. Behavioral-style interviewing, on the other hand, helps predict future behavior by examining past behavior. This method of interviewing is used by many organizations (including executive search professionals) to better assess candidates before making a critical hiring decision.
May 13, 2011 Mark Hagland
article
Earlier this spring, the Waltham, Mass.-based QuantiaMD, an online physician-to-physician learning collaborative, released the results of a study that focused on the need for the training, education, and resources needed in order to help physicians participate in initiatives to reduce hospital readmissions. Over 1,000 physicians nationwide participated in the study. Significantly, while more than 9 out of 10 physicians working in hospitals believe that reducing readmissions is an important area of endeavor, 71 percent of those surveyed by QuantiaMD told researchers that their organizations’ systems and procedures for averting readmissions among high-risk patients were not very effective.
March 21, 2011 Charlene Marietti
blog
The big question of how best to marry technology to a high touch/low tech business was tackled at an Environments for Aging (EFA) conference roundtable moderated by Jon Sanford, M. Arch, director of the Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access at the College of Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology held on March 21 in Atlanta. The discussion was lively and sprinkled with concerns, admonitions, and positive outlooks.
March 17, 2011
blog
Reflecting on HIMSS and recent vendor announcements, I’ve been thinking about how difficult it must be for healthcare CIOs these days in terms of data management. Information Technology (IT) organizations have the unenviable task of dealing with all of a healthcare entity’s data, including operational and patient data.
March 4, 2011 David Raths
blog
At Healthcare Informatics, we have been writing with increasing frequency about the application of business intelligence (BI) tools to clinical data. As KLAS Research director Lorin Bird told us in January, BI gives providers the ability to use data to better understand patterns related to quality and patient safety and improve outcomes. It can also help them marry financial and clinical outcomes data. With BI tools, they can prove that better clinical outcomes lead to a reduction in cost, and that more attention to chronic care can leads to savings, Bird said.
February 28, 2011 James L. Holly, M.D.
blog
The Only Structural Change Which Will Make a Difference–Coordination of Care Someone has to take charge of health care and there are only two
