Study: Automated reminders can raise colon cancer screening rates
Lately, the pressure has greatly increased for primary care physicians to follow preventive care guidelines. But to date, the industry hasn't evolved a standardized way of keeping doctors and
Gingrich says anti-fraud income should pay for health IT
How should the U.S. pay for the massive health IT investments state and federal legislators crave? Well, if you ask former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, the answer is to funnel the dollars
Study: Telehealth can improve outcomes, but issues remain
A new study from the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality has released a report on the results of some telehealth grant projects aimed at low-income rural areas with high rates of chronic
Trend: Hospitals begin to pay MDs to serve on IT comitttees
Traditionally, hospitals have recruited doctors to take part in health IT-related committees for no fee, on the assumption that doctors would see personal value in being involved. After all, doctors
Email: The neglected workhorse
While I'm as big a supporter of building out health data repositories as anybody, we all know that sharing clinical data effectively is a nasty, expensive problem within even a single department.
HHS supports both standard approaches for e-prescribing
So, HHS has been raising hackles all around of late, in part due to the rough kickoff of the National Provider Identifier requirement, and partly due to its proposal that providers switch over to
Case study: KY hospital ED cuts patient wait times with EMR
King's Daughters Medical Center, a 385-bed regional hospital in Ashland, KY, has pulled off a trick many of its peers would envy. The not-for-profit cut its emergency department's length of stay from
CA proposes medical record privacy rules
The California legislature is considering a new bill that imposes health data privacy protections above and beyond those already required by HIPAA, alarmed by a recent rash of medical record snooping
NQF endorses national technology standards
The National Quality Forum has endorsed a group of nine health IT standards under its new national voluntary consensus program. The standards address electronic prescribing, EMR interoperability,
Doctors, health plans want longer ICD-10 timeline
A growing list of healthcare organizations, including the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), American Medical Association and America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), are raising objections
ONCHIT plans medical identity theft town hall
Medical identity theft is quickly becoming one of the biggest security threats a health IT administrator needs to consider, given the rich trove of personal data medical records typically include.
Switch to ICD-10 should be very costly
Health IT administrators are far from done in their struggles to implement the new National Provider Identifier number, which has proved to be every bit as troublesome as the industry predicted. But
Health IT mandates aren't a great idea
Massachusetts has done some, let us say, interesting things in the health reform arena of late--ranging from its ground-breaking universal health insurance requirements to new rules requiring
Online physician visits can improve access
A new report suggests that while there's a host of issues to address, Internet-based doctor visits are a good idea, as they could expand access to medical care. Still, the report, from the National
CO to create country's largest telehealth network
Colorado should soon play host to the largest telehealth network in the country, courtesy of a $4.6 million grant from the Federal Communications Commission. The Colorado Hospital Association, which
WA launching health record bank pilot
Beginning in 2009, Washington state plans to launch a health record bank program serving 18,000 residents in three communities. Under legislation approved in 2005 and 2007, the Washington State
Trend: Number of tools to remotely collect health data growing
In the near future, it should become increasingly common for patients to collect personal healthcare data with a specialized device and shunt it easily to a server or website. Such tools, which
MA passes law requiring HIT implementation
The state of Massachusetts has passed a package of healthcare laws that include provisions requiring the implementation of health IT and regulating consulting deals between medical-products companies
Would PHRs work better than RHIOs?
As I went about preparing your issue this week, I stumbled across an interesting news item that I wanted to share with y'all. According to my estimable competitor Healthcare IT News, speakers at a
Trend: Hospitals, health systems building their own networks
For years now, hospitals have struggled to create health information exchanges that not only served some broad community purpose, but also hooked up their physicians with their central systems.
