A Week in Review, Aug 8

Best Practices For Selecting An EHR

[InformationWeek Healthcare] An in-depth analysis and exhaustive checklist from Huntington Memorial Hospital's Rebecca Armato. Rebecca Armato doesn't mince words. "Just as the right medical treatment is critical to a patient's survival, the right approach to EHR selection and adoption is critical to the health/survival of a physician's practice," she said. Read full story.


EHRs are easy prey, but all is not lost

[Network World] Wherever money and information flow, so do the bad guys. And with estimates that the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) and Electronic Health Record (EHR) market in the U.S. will reach $6 billion by 2015 -- according to the research and consulting firm MarketsandMarkets -- it's no surprise criminals are paying more attention. Also no shock is that as more records are digitized, there are many more breaches involving patient data. This is not unlike when vast credit card breaches quickly followed the rise of e-commerce in the early part of the previous decade. Read full story.


5 Considerations on Health Information Exchanges: What Your Hospital or Health System Needs to Know

[Hospital Review] Hospitals and health systems are scrambling to become meaningful users of certified electronic health record technology within their own entities, but what's the next step to share health information after that step? The answer for many organizations will be health information exchanges. Read full story.


How healthcare packaging professionals are using iPads for business

[Healthcare Packaging] Tablet computing has been around for years, but the category didn't take off until Apple launched the iPad in April 2010. A year and a half later, Apple has sold more than 25 million iPads. And that's nothing compared to what's to come. Millions and millions more will be sold over the next 12 months, by Apple and the slew of Android competitors being released. Read full story.

A Week in Review, Aug 1

Why CompTIA Healthcare IT Technician?

[CompTIA] We all hear the buzz about healthcare – EHR/EMR, HIPAA, PHI and the other acronyms in the space. But what does it mean for IT professionals? What are the job opportunities? How do you show employers you have the unique skills required to work in IT in a healthcare setting? Read full story.


New Healthcare Technology to Save the United States $700 Billion

[Wall Street Daily] Thanks to the increasingly popular telemedicine trend, your home office could one day double as your doctor’s office.

It’s possible because telemedicine breakthroughs allow doctors to link directly with remote patients through its teleconferencing technology. Read full story.


EHRs Fall Short for Eye Doctors: Report

[eWeek] Ordinary electronic health record applications lack features that eye doctors require and therefore, these specialists have been slow to adopt the software, according to a report by the IT committee of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Read full story.


Hospitals Boost IT Spending Plans

[InformationWeek Healthcare] The federal incentive program for Meaningful Use of electronic health records seems to be having its desired early effect by spurring healthcare organizations to adopt more than just basic EHRs, according to a new study. And many hospitals are making plans to spend more on other forms of IT in the next few years, suggesting that EHRs are becoming integral to the overall organizational strategy. Read full story.

A Week in Review, July 25

FDA proposes regulation of mobile healthcare apps

[LA Times] The Food and Drug Administration has introduced a proposal that would allow it to regulate smartphone and tablet apps that relate to health and medical needs. Read full story.


List of 'Most Connected Hospitals' Emphasizes Health IT Adoption

[iHealthBeat] On Tuesday, U.S. News & World Report released its "Most Connected Hospitals" list featuring 118 facilities, U.S. News & World Report reports. Read full story.

A Week in Review, July 18

Healthcare IT booming but faces talent drought

[ZDNet] The healthcare IT sector is on a roll but the market's fast demand and growth is hindered by a lack of talent skilled with both clinical and IT know-how, note industry players, who add that clinical analysis, interface management and electronic medical records are some of the most sought-after skills in the industry. Read full story.


The Costs and Implications of EHR System Downtime on Physician Practices

[SYS-CON] Government funding incentives (ARRA HITECH Act) to implement electronic health record systems (EHR) are driving most physicians towards the selection and implementation of EHR applications that are appropriate to their practice. However, even though the average practice takes more than 120 days to select their EHR solution, 87% of practices spend no time evaluating the service levels and uptime associated with these installations, instead leaving this important criterion in the hands of the software provider. Read full story.


Do EHRs leave out your personal story? Social media response

[Healthcare IT News] The idea of a nationwide electronic health record system is brilliant. Patients could use their own personal health record to request prescription refills, schedule future appointments and evaluate their own test results. The record could live on thumb drives, mobile devices, personal computers, or in the cloud. Read full story.

A Week in Review, July 11

EMR by the Numbers – Video Infographic (GE Healthcare)



Delays Force Feds To Propose EHR Reporting Changes

[Information Week] The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said it plans to allow eligible professionals to attest in 2012 that they have used their electronic health records to collect data on clinical quality measures as part of the CMS criteria for "Meaningful Use" of EHRs. Read full story.


Personal Health Records to Thrive Despite the Demise of Google Health: Report

[eWeek] Despite the exit of Google from the personal health record market, the consumer version of electronic health records may have a future as part of an overall health care IT strategy, according to a report by research firm Frost & Sullivan. Read full story.


EHR Adoption Will Drive Health Care IT Stocks Through 2013

[TWST] Health care IT companies stand to benefit from the current move toward stage one meaningful use implementation of electronic health records by hospitals and physician offices through 2013, says Jamie Stockton, First Vice President at Morgan Keegan & Co., Inc. Read full story.

A Week in Review, July 4

Capgemini eyes US healthcare acquisition

[Financial Times] Capgemini, the European IT services company, is looking for a string of acquisitions to bolster its position in the US market, with a particular interest in the healthcare sector. Read full story.


AAMI: Healthcare technology management dawns as a new profession

[CMIO] After an intensive two-day forum to better define the evolving role of clinical and biomedical engineering, industry leaders came to the conclusion that healthcare technology management is the new name for the profession, which was explained in a presentation at the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) conference & expo on June 26. Read full story.


Health IT grads to improve healthcare

[UPI] Nine U.S. programs in comprehensive management of health information are graduating their first classes, totaling about 500 students this summer, officials say. Read full story.


IBM study defines futuristic networked devices for healthcare

[Networkworld] IBM came out with a study this week that looks at what future healthcare applications and devices, be they PCs, tablet or smartphone might look like.

The study notes that medical device makers have in the past few years successfully targeted consumers who are extremely health or fitness conscious as well as those who need to be regularly monitored because of a serious health problem. But the IBM study says those devices and services could now go a step further and integrate mobile and home-based devices with web-based resources, electronic and personal health records to help people make more well-informed medial decisions and actually help manage their healthcare situation more proactively. Read full story.

A Week in Review, June 20

HITECH Act moves healthcare IT industry forward

[MedCity News] As I travel the world speaking about the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, I’m often asked to present objective evidence that it is making a difference. Read full story.


Consumer confidence about health data safety is key to EHR adoption

[Government Health IT] As the healthcare system becomes more connected, it will increasingly become a breeding ground for risk to individual privacy, confidential information, data integrity and service availability, according to health IT security experts. Read full story.


Are Health Insurers Prepared for Healthcare Reform?

[Insurance & Technology] Countless papers have been written about the impact of healthcare reform on the insurance industry, but few look at these changes from the perspective of how these mandates will impact healthcare payers -- particularly, technology, people and processes. In the interest of bridging that gap, let's take a look some of the challenges health insurers face, and some solutions they might consider. Read full story.

A Week in Review, June 13

Study: EHR, paper workarounds may lead to efficiencies

[CMIO] Workarounds identified during the outpatient consultation management process, first studied two years ago, continue to challenge EHR-based ambulatory consultation systems, according a study in the July 2011 issue of the International Journal of Medical Informatics. Read full story.

Small Practices, Individuals Practitioners Struggle More to Overcome EHR Costs

[Becker’s Hospital Review] Solo physicians and small physician practices find it harder to remain financially viable as they work to choose, implement and learn to use electronic health records, according to a Government Health IT news report. Read full story.


Patient involvement is critical to success of Meaningful Use program

[Healthcare IT News] One of the major purposes of the federal program for the Meaningful Use of electronic health records (EHRs) is to produce improved clinical outcomes for patients. Providing patients access to their personal health information and having that information available to their families, caregivers and healthcare providers anywhere at any time is another core requirement of the Meaningful Use program. Read full story.

A Week in Review, June 6

IBM Watson Beaten In Medical Diagnostics Race

[InformationWeek Healthcare] Sherlock Holmes would be proud of IBM's Watson computer. No longer the bumbling sidekick portrayed by Arthur Conan Doyle, the supercomputer has managed to master natural language skills, defeat Jeopardy contestants, and wow medical school professors with its potential to diagnose esoteric diseases. I suspect it would even make the late IBM President Thomas J. Watson, for whom the computer is named, proud. Read full story here.

Health Care Cloud Offers Some Risk, Endless Possibilities

[SearchHealthIT.com] Health care information technology, in many ways, trails other vertical markets. Contract attorney Diana McKenzie of HunterMaclean in Savannah, Ga. put it this way: When she first started practicing health IT law more than two decades ago, she found health care about eight years behind finance. Read full story here.

Verizon Enhances Security Programs For Healthcare Organizations

[InformationWeek Healthcare] Verizon has added new capabilities to two of its security programs, capabilities that should help health delivery organization strengthen security across their health systems and assess the security practices of partners they do business with. Read full story here.

A Week in Review

Five Hot Trends in Healthcare Technologies

[ZDNet] The pace at which medicine and technology are converging is faster than most people realze. Today, point-of-care health technologies like tele-medicine and medical robots performing surgery in hospitals are common place. Apple iPads and other mobile devices have made their way into the exam room, and electronic medical record (EMR) vendors are following suit with compatible applications. Read full story here.


RealMed Facilitates Faster Payments by Embedding Claims Reconciliation Capabilities

[EMR and EHR News] RealMed, a leading provider of revenue cycle management solutions for health care industry, announced integration of its awarding winning capabilities with Epic. The integration provides Epic billing software clients with seamless access to RealMed’s powerful claims editing and error management tools from within the same interface used for processing claims today. Read full story here.


GlobalSign BIOWRAP Provides Healthcare, Pharmaceutical Industries with Security, Privacy and Compliance over all Digital Information

[SFGate] GlobalSign, one of the longest established Certification Authorities (CA) and specialists in online security, announced that its BIOWRAP Encrypted File system is now available to healthcare and pharmaceutical industry customers. Read full story here.