Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski, recently joined healthcare IT vendors GE Healthcare (Chalfont, St. Giles, U.K.) and Philips Healthcare (Andover, Mass.) to unveil a proposal that would allow for allow greater use of spectrum for Medical Body Area Network (MBAN) devices. These devices can be used for technologies like wireless patient monitoring, which allow healthcare providers to check on a patient outside a hospital setting.

A new report from Surescripts on ePrescribing says the technology is growing in usage among office-based physicians. This can be attributed to the regulatory incentives of meaningful use, as well as improved medication adherence. According to the report, nearly 60 percent of physicians who started using ePrescribing in 2008 have met Stage 1 measures.

Some hospitals and health systems are looking to extend their own EMR solutions to independent hospitals and clinics. The practice became possible with the relaxation of anti-kickback statutes in 2006, but the sense of urgency has heightened in today’s environment. In fact, some organizations are even implementing new EMR solutions internally while extending the same solution to private practices simultaneously.

On the heels of an eventful two-week stretch where it dismissed its Chairman of the Board, Paul Pead and replaced him with a new one, Dennis Chookaszian, a few days later, and saw three other board members resign, as well as dealt with a stock price dip, Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc. has appointed Paul M. Black, former chief operating officer of Cerner Corporation, and The Hon. Robert J. Cindrich (Ret.), former senior vice president and chief legal officer for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), as directors. Black will serve on the Board's Compensation Committee and Cindrich will serve on the Board's Audit Committee.