PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Healthcare organization Rhode Island Quality Institute was recognized as a national IT and HIE leader yesterday by David Blumenthal, MD, national coordinator for health IT, during a visit to Coastal Medical in East Providence, R.I.
Google announced a couple of integration agreements and technology additions for its Google Health product at this year'st HIMSS10 show in Atlanta, including an integration with e-prescribing provider Surescripts and a future collaboration with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
The American Medical Association (AMA) and Dell are collaborating for health IT adoption for such technologies as EMRs, e-prescribing and laboratory services through the AMA’s new health information solutions platform for physicians.
E-prescribing in the U.S. witnessed an 181 percent increase as 190 milion prescriptions were routed electronically in 2009 versus 68 million in 2008, according to a report from e-prescription network Surescripts, in its 2009 progess report on e-prescribing. Of the 190 million, more than four million e-prescriptions were routed to mail order pharmacies.
Written by Justine Cadet
ATLANTA—In order to achieve true interoperability within a healthcare system, the IT leaders must consider the value of leaving physicians in the comfort zone, as well as adopting a patient-centric model, to which all data is anchored, according to a session Tuesday at HIMSS10.
While the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and its Center for Health IT supports the goals of the new meaningful use regulations announced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the organization stated that the regulations, as proposed, pose hurdles that challenge small- and medium-size medical practices’ ability to achieve all that is required to receive the incentive payments.
Athens Regional Medical Center, a 375-bed regional referral center located in Athens, Ga., has selected Eclipsys' PeakPractice EMR/practice management solution to link patient information with its network of physicians.
Benefits from EHR and e-prescribing investments come under very broad, diverse categories but are very individual and specific to the retrospective context of an investment, according to a study by the European Commission. There is no single correct strategy for implementing EHRs and e-prescribing systems, yet the results of the study give grounds for optimism in the success, value and deployment of interoperable EHR and e-prescribing systems after a few years.
The California E-Prescribing Consortium has recently been launched to improve patient safety and care through the adoption of e-prescribing technology.
Iowa Health System and Allscripts have launched a new partnership this week called ePrescribe Iowa--an initiative attempting to convert a majority of the state’s physicians from paper prescriptions to e-prescribing.
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Written by Kaitlyn Dmyterko
ATLANTA--The government's plan for meaningful use with EHR implementations are helpful but might not be entirely feasible, said Michael J. Mirro, MD, of Fort Wayne Cardiology in Indiana, during a discussion of the pros and pitfalls of EHR adoption yesterday at the 59th annual American College of Cardiology (ACC) scientific session.
InConcertCare, a health center-controlled network of eight community and migrant health centers that provides care to 78,000 people in underserved communities throughout Iowa and Nebraska, has selected GE Healthcare for its health IT system.
ATLANTA—InterSystems participated in a demonstration that simulated state-to-state health information exchange (HIE) for the duration of the HIMSS10 conference this week.
Written by Jeff Byers
ATLANTA–In the implementation process of an EMR, time needs to be allotted in the rollout process to educate the staff about the new system, according to Stanley Wisniewski, MD, principal at Cal Arundel Family Medicine in Huntington, Md., during an educational session Wednesday at HIMSS10.
The EHR adoption rate in U.S. medical offices is 36.1 percent, a 3.2 percent increase since February 2009, according to a report from health IT company SK&A, a Cegedim company.
The board of directors of the health nonprofit eHealth Initiative and Foundation Tuesday announced the appointment of Jennifer Covich Bordenick as CEO, effective immediately.
The National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS), an annual U.S. representative survey of patient visits to office-based physicians, found that 41.5 percent of physicians reported using all or partial EMR/EHR systems (not including systems solely for billing) in their office-based practices in 2008. The comparable figure for the 2007 NAMCS was 34 percent.
PricewaterhouseCoopers' (PwC) Health Research Institute's Top 10 health industry issues in 2010 puts healthcare cost control at the head of the list as the overarching theme for the year ahead.
MVP Health Care, a not-for-profit health insurer serving more than 750,000 members in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire, will begin reimbursing its more than 22,000 physicians for RelayHealth's webVisit consultations in most of its benefit plans.
U.S. e-prescribing network Surescripts has reported that more than 140,000 (23 percent) of all office-based physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants in the United States are now e-prescribing.
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The use of health IT to reduce rehospitalizations will be welcome but also disruptive, said Stephen Jencks, an independent consultant in healthcare safety during a Feb. 24 webinar on the potential use of health IT to mitigate rehospitalizations, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
During the Health IT Standards Committee meeting on Feb. 24 in Washington, D.C., the Clinical Operations Workgroup sought to gather comments on proposed recommendations on implementation specifications for content exchange, vocabulary and code set standards for the Interim Final Rule of meaningful use.
In 2006, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), a branch of the FDA, began examining the number of medical device reports they received. Over the past two years, the number of submitted reports has increased, sparking a demand for the CDRH to make a move to electronic reporting.
A new hospital breaking ground usually isn’t breaking news. But the vision of patient care at one new facility, tentatively named Palomar Medical Center West (PMC West), is currently illegal under California state law.