May 18, 2012
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is launching a new Investing in Innovation (i2) Initiative developer contest aimed at improving interoperability among office-based ophthalmic imaging devices, measurement devices, and electronic health records (EHRs). The ONC’s i2 program is a way to promote the use of technology to find solutions that drive better outcomes, engage users in their health, and improve healthcare quality.
May 18, 2012
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.
May 17, 2012
According to a survey conducted by Fitch Ratings, a New York City-based global rating agency, the majority of nonprofit hospitals expect capital spending to either increase, and most of them are going to spend their money on IT. The survey said factors influencing capital plans, such as potential decreases in reimbursement levels, shifting clinical practice patterns from inpatient settings to outpatient settings, and the possible implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), have lead to this increase in IT expenditures.
May 17, 2012
Imaging Systems vendor Agfa HealthCare (Toronto, Canada), has announced the opening of a new research and development (R&D) facility and global data center in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The facility will be a place where Afga says it will expand on current product offerings and build its digital pathology offering, which it says will continue to improve and transform the field of medical imaging and image-enable the electronic health record (EHR).
May 17, 2012
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.
May 16, 2012
Stephen Fletcher, executive director of the Utah Dept. of Technology Services (DTS), has resigned from his post as a result of a hacker accessing the medical information of 780,000 Medicaid recipients within the state. The announcement was made by Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert, who also outlined the State's response to the recent health and Medicaid data breach.
May 16, 2012
The Reston, Va.-based Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), a non-profit organization formed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) that focuses on the use of Health IT to improve the exchange of healthcare information, has responded to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding the extension of the compliance date from October 1, 2013 to October 1, 2014. WEDI says any extension of time should be put to good use, allowing for more robust assessments, remediation and testing.
May 16, 2012
Wolters Kluwer Health, a Minneapolis-based provider of information for healthcare professionals and students, has signed an agreement with MEDITECH (Westwood, Mass.) to offer clinical decision integration between MEDITECH version 5.64 (Client/Server and MAGIC) and Wolters’ ProVation Order Sets.
May 16, 2012
In a blog post by the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Farzad Mostashari, M.D., the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) has announced the creation of the Office of the Chief Medical Officer and an Office of Consumer eHealth. The primary function of the Office of the Chief Medical Officer will be to infuse a clinical perspective across ONC on all activities which have clinical implications. The Office of Consumer eHealth will work on consumer engagement.
May 15, 2012
According to a new report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy, a dramatic increase in the fall death rate in older Americans is likely the effect of improved reporting quality, specifically from the 1999 update to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). The researchers say this suggests a major change in the way deaths were classified.
May 15, 2012
The Denver-based TriZetto Group’s wholly owned subsidiary, Gateway EDI, has acquired NHXS, a software company that aims to help medical practices manage physician reimbursement and minimize the administrative cost of recovering lost revenues. The Sacramento-based NHXS’s capabilities will be integrated into Gateway EDI’s solutions, which include EDI and revenue cycle management services for reportedly more than 100,000 physicians.
May 15, 2012
A new report from healthcare market and advisory firm Manhattan Research indicates physicians’ device and digital media adoption is increasing at a much faster than anticipated rate, especially when it comes to tablets. The study surveyed 3,015 U.S. practicing physicians online in Q1 2012 across more than 25 specialties and found physician tablet adoption for professional purposes almost doubled since 2011, reaching 62 percent in 2012.
May 14, 2012
According to a study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, an EMR tool that tallies patients' previous radiation exposure from CT scans can help reduce potentially unnecessary use of the tests among emergency room patients with abdominal pain. When the tool is in use, researchers say patients are 10 percent less likely to undergo a CT scan, without increasing the number of patients who are admitted to the hospital.
May 14, 2012
The American Medical Association (AMA) has sent a letter to the acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Marilyn B. Tavenner, asking for a longer delay time period to the ICD-10 transition compliance date. While AMA says it welcomes the proposed extension in the compliance deadline for ICD-10 from Oct. 1, 2013 to Oct. 1, 2014, it urges CMS to further extend the ICD-10 deadline at a minimum to Oct. 1, 2015.
May 14, 2012
The Office for the National Coordinator of Health IT (ONC) is requesting public comments on its Request for Information on Governance of the Nationwide Health Information Network, which was put on public display today by the Office of the Federal Register's Public Inspection. The key component of the proposed governance approach includes a focus on entities that facilitate electronic health information exchange.
