information organization news from FierceHealthIT

In theory, it doesn't make sense to move ahead with major IT initiatives until the industry has at least some clue as to how to define key terms. However, a recent effort by the National Alliance for Read more...

Do you know the difference between an e-medical record and an e-health record? Health IT professionals are banking on an answer of "no," which is why there now is more of a push to give more "precise Read more...

The state of Florida has begun a pilot test under which it's checking out the idea of rolling out an EMR for all of its Medicaid recipients. The project, which (as far as we know at FierceHealthIT) Read more...

The California Regional Health Information Organization (CalRHIO) has gotten a $1 million grant from health system Sutter Health as part of Sutter's efforts to spread its money around. In return for permission to issue nearly $1 billion in tax-free bonds, Sutter agreed to donate $8.5 million in technology grants to help rural hospitals connect their IT infrastructure, as well as supporting community clinics in northern California.

The money is a drop in the bucket for …

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Sometimes, a vendor offers its own prestige boost to an IT project. Such, apparently, is the case in California, where a statewide RHIO initiative has just brought HP on board. The California Read more...

Marking the first collaboration between the agency and a state government, the U.S. Department of Defense has kicked off a project under which it will share health information with Florida's government. Under the terms of the agreement, the DoD will work with the Tampa Bay Regional Health Information Organization to create an interoperable data sharing network. The project will be overseen by the state's lead health agency, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. To make things …

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Many health providers believe that, in theory, they could get a great deal of benefit out of participating in a regional health information organization (RHIO). Unfortunately, however, few small primary care practices are like to invest the time and money needed to link up with a RHIO. Writer Matthew Holt suggests that RHIOs might stand a better chance of attracting providers if they host and manage the data networking application themselves. About 20 percent of RHIOs are already …

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