health management news from FierceHealthIT

Health Language Inc., which specializes in terminology management, is partnering with MEDecision, which provides payer-based clinical summaries and care gap alerts to doctors. The aim of their Read more...

Smart investments in clinical IT could pay big dividends for hospitals, but may benefit patients more than the facilities themselves over the short term, according to a new report from the Healthcare Read more...

Giant telecommunications firm Verizon Communications is rolling out a PHR for 900,000 employees, dependents and retirees, with executives suggesting that such a platform can foster consumer-driven health system changes. The new records, known as the Verizon HealthZone PHR, is provided by WebMD, which offers Web-based, password protected access to records. When patients choose to enroll in the PHR, the record allows patients, as well as clinicians, pharmacies and labs, to enter and manage …

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First, let's ask the question on everyone's mind: What is a PHR? I'm not sure, and I bet you aren't either. But I can tell you that if the idea of adding self-reported patient health information to the mix sounds appetizing, you'll get your fill at HIMSS this year. I'm not talking about the tentative, completely voluntary efforts that are currently offered by the consumer-facing sides of companies like WebMD and Medem. In fact, not all of the PHR buzz you'll get comes from vendors with a product to plug; in fact, interestingly enough, some of the most interesting PHR efforts, like the Cleveland Clinic's MyChart, are rising up from the provider level rather than vendor engineering teams. (I particularly like MyChart's "caregiver" data collection categories, as they go beyond mere patient self-reporting to collecting data from other vitally involved parties.) Still, there are definitely some sophisticated commercial efforts underway, such as ActiveHealth's CareEngine, which is integrating a particularly long list of relevant sources--such as pharmacy benefit management systems, labs, claims data from health plans, member-contributed data and more--into a next-gen PHR model.

Basically, anyone you speak to at HIMSS who considers themselves to be in the clinical information management business is probably going pitch you on having a PHR, as it's become de rigeur almost overnight. There seems to be a consensus that patients have critical information to contribute to the health management process;  the question will be what HIMSS participants think IT can do to help the process along.

Healthcare IT gets a big round of applause from hospitals and other medical professionals in Arizona, where healthcare IT is touted as having the potential to play a big role in curbing rising health care costs, say professors in the School of Health Management and Policy in the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University. Drilling down a bit, the article in the East Valley Tribune looks at a local healthcare provider, Banner Health, that's in the process of …

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> Illinois healthcare provider upgrades network with AT&T. Article

> Broadlane launches Interchange, first e-sourcing and contracting tool for healthcare group purchasing. Item

> Medicaid group grants PageMinder approval for sse of …

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