FierceHealthcareFierceHealthITFierceHealthFinanceFierceEMRHospital ImpactFierceMobileHealthcare   FierceCIO

Latest News

Short EHR implementation timeline could lead to errors

If there is such a thing as a general consensus about the proposed rules for "meaningful use" of health IT, it's that the current HHS plan is fairly solid, but in need of some tweaking. It's fairly... Read more...

Obama budget calls for more funding for ONC, comparative effectiveness

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology would get a $17 million funding boost, to a total of $78 million, under the Obama administration's budget proposal for fiscal... Read more...

HIT vendor contracts must be aligned with meaningful use rules

We're still waiting for a final definition of "meaningful use" of electronic health records, but with a proposed rule out there for more than a month now and a good sense of where the industry is... Read more...

IBM to purchase Initiate Systems

IBM, which long ago abandoned plans to develop an electronic medical record, is making a deeper push into health information exchange by agreeing to acquire Initiate Systems. Privately held Initiate... Read more...

'Stories of Success!' highlight 16 organizations using HIT to improve quality

Last fall, HIMSS and the American Society for Quality solicited case studies of healthcare organizations that have successfully employed IT to improve patient safety and the quality, effectiveness... Read more...

Don't forget that HIMSS is more than a vendor show

We're just three weeks away from the annual HIMSS conference in Atlanta, and if you're going, by now your schedule likely is pretty full for the duration of the meeting. Personally, I'm still filling... Read more...

HHS promises transparency, but only after getting caught

A lot has been made about President Obama's repeated promises to run the most transparent administration this country has ever seen. Obviously, the administration still has a lot of work to do. The... Read more...

HHS looks for unintended consequences of EMR stimulus

We love this headline from Government Health IT: "HHS takes Hippocratic oath on health IT stimulus." "First, do no harm" is the mantra of a new group HHS is forming to identify and prevent any... Read more...

Also Noted

> An electronic medication reconciliation process has helped Washington Hospital Healthcare System in Fremont, Calif., produce home medication lists for 99 percent of patients at the time of admission. Article

> Medical transcription software vendor MedQuist will purchase the U.S. assets of bankrupt clinical documentation technology firm Spheris. Press release

> Picis has started a blog, Healthcare-Exchange, exploring current issues affecting healthcare. The first post includes five predictions for 2010 from CEO Todd Cozzens. Article

> Graduates of the HIT program at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in New York City now are eligible to sit for the Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT) exam. Video

> Wolters Kluwer Health has rebranded its drug information reference product as Facts & Comparisons eAnswers. Press release

> Consumer-facing medication reminder service FreeRxReminder.com now is selling access to provider and payer organizations. News brief

> HIE vendor Medicity has secured a U.S. patent for its "agent-grid" technology that allows secure data transfer between EHRs and paper-based practices over community-wide health information exchanges. Press release

And Finally... You probably don't want to mess with this old man. Article