pilot news from FierceHealthIT

> Here's an interesting telehealth project; a new pilot has linked hospitals in rural Ethiopia with India's leading cardiac institute. Read more...

Just in case you haven't had your fill, here's more optimism from the feds on HIT adoption. (As for me, it's getting a bit grating, as I don't see enough going on to actually make adoption happen.) Read more...

To date, Massachusetts has done well in the race to implement EMRs. However, it won't keep that lead if decision-makers don't quickly figure out how to foster and pay for EMR use, according to Read more...

Over next 18 to 24 months, a group of New York area hospitals will be pilot-testing smart cards that can carry the equivalent of 30 pages of medical records. The hospitals, which include Mount Sinai Medical Center, Jersey City Medical Center, Queens Hospital Center, Cabrini Medical Center and several others, plan to hand out 100,000 of the cards, that were developed by Siemens Medical Solutions. Siemens is actually subsidizing the initial round of cards, not to mention the hardware and …

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Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) may chair the State Alliance for e-Health, but that doesn't mean he's cutting the industry pass. Bredesen is fed up with health IT's slow, gradual progress toward interoperability. He'd like to see people stop holding seminars and pilot testing, pick a focus area--say, e-prescribing--and knock it out of the park. (Bonus: Check out a podcast interview with Gov. Bredesen by insider health IT blogger Neil Versel.) Article

San Francisco-based mobile applications developer BeWell Mobile has partnered with Indian technology firm Wipro Technology to offer cellphone-based disease management services. The platform includes a provider interface allowing clinicians and other professional users to set up individual patient applications, and a separate patient interface integrating a diary, reminders and reports. BeWell is currently conducting an asthma management pilot with the San Mateo Medical Center and Clinics …

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Working with regional insurers, Nashville-based SilverScript Insurance plans to offer access to its iScribe e-prescribing software at no charge to 10,000 physicians. The program is being rolled out to physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Virginia, Maryland, Florida and Tennessee. Participants get no-cost access to both Web and PDA-based prescribing functions. Other providers can access the Web service for free, but must pay for the PDA …

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