Topic

Healthcare IT


Nuance snags Janet Dillione from Siemens to run healthcare unit

Executive Announcements | Thursday, April 01 2010
Voice recognition services developer Nuance Communications has appointed Janet Dillione as executive vice president and general manager of Nuance’s Healthcare business segment.
 

ACC: PINNACLE Registry aims to improve outpatient cardiac care

Conference News | Tuesday, March 16 2010
Written by Gina Narcisi
QATLANTA - Originally piloted two years ago as the Improving Continuous Cardiac Care IC3 registry, the recently rebranded PINNACLE registry is the first and only ambulatory registry for cardiovascular conditions in this country, noted William Oetgen, MD, clinical associate professor of medicine at Georgetown University, at the 59th annual American College of Cardiology (ACC) annual conference on March 16.
 

ACC: Facilities are not yet ready to adopt EHRs for meaningful use

Conference News | Monday, March 15 2010
Written by Kaitlyn Dmyterko
ATLANTA—As U.S. lawmakers push facilities to adopt health IT technologies, problems often arise during the implementation process demonstrating that facilities may not be ready to make the switch toward meaningful use, said John Windle, MD, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, during his presentation at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) scientific sessions Sunday.
 

ACC: Meaningful use policy is helpful, but may not be feasible

Conference News | Sunday, March 14 2010
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.
 

ACCA: Better in-hospital coding strategies can eliminate revenue drains

Top Stories | Saturday, March 13 2010
Written by Justine Cadet
ATLANTA--In order for providers to eliminate top revenue drains, they must adopt better coding techniques and integrate the coding team into the hospital setting, said Karna Morrow, from Coding Strategies in Atlanta, during her presentation at the American College of Cardiovascular Administrators (ACCA) conference on March 12. Slides»
 

Health IT Standards Committee: Clinical Operations group seeks specificity in standards

Web Exclusives | Wednesday, February 24 2010
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.
 

HHS names new national healthcare IT coordinator

Top Stories | Friday, March 20 2009
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has chosen David Blumenthal, MD, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama's campaign, to lead healthcare IT efforts for the administration.
 

Pennsylvania hospital employs McKesson for revenue cycle overhaul

Contracts & Installations | Thursday, March 19 2009
Abington Memorial Hospital in Abington, Pa., plans to replace 26 disparate systems from various vendors with a single end-to-end revenue management system froffm McKesson.
 

Kaiser inks $500M healthcare IT deal with IBM, job cuts on horizon

Top Stories | Tuesday, March 17 2009
Healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente has signed a $500 million data-center management contract with IBM, which could put as many as 860 IT jobs in jeopardy as part of the strategic realignment.
 

GE helps Canadian facility go digital

Contracts & Installations | Wednesday, March 11 2009
GE Healthcare has implemented its Digital Imaging Repository to connect hospitals and medical centers throughout Southwestern Ontario Canada.
 

Healthcare IT incentives fall short for physician practices

Top Stories | Wednesday, March 11 2009
Healthcare IT provisions in the recently passed economic stimulus bill suggest that new financial incentives will still leave many physicians in small practices facing significant up-front implementation costs, according to an analysis by healthcare business strategy and public policy research firm Avalere Health.
 

HHS seeks nominations for two healthcare IT advisory boards

Industry News | Wednesday, March 11 2009
Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is seeking nominations for the newly created HIT Standards Committee and HIT Policy Committee.
 

ONCHIT to issue state info-sharing recommendations

Industry News | Wednesday, March 11 2009
In an effort to resolve policy differences among states on sharing electronic health information, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) will release recommendations for handling interstate sharing next month from the Health Information Security and Privacy Collaboration.
 

HIMSS names 15 U.S. hospitals as EMR best-practice models

Industry News | Tuesday, March 10 2009
HIMSS Analytics will recognize 15 hospitals with its first Stage 7 Award at the 2009 HIMSS conference next month in Chicago. The award represents attainment of the highest level on the HIMSS Analytics' EMR Adoption Model.
 

Health Affairs: California P4P stimulates changes in medical practice

Top Stories | Tuesday, March 10 2009
A large group of California physicians given financial incentives to improve the quality of medical care have begun to embrace an array of changes important to advancing quality, according to a study published in the March/April issue in Health Affairs.
 

HIMSS: 0.5% of U.S. hospitals are models for EMR implementation

Top Stories | Tuesday, March 03 2009
As the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act seeks to transform healthcare, only 42 U.S. hospitals serve as models in IT adoption for other facilities beginning that process, according to Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Analytics.
 

Stimulus package may allow hospitals to "dust off" stalled IT projects

Top Stories | Monday, March 02 2009
When President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law, designating approximately $18 billion for the state Medicare programs and $2 billion for healthcare IT investments, providers were left "scratching their heads" about how the funds could potentially impact their bottom line, according to Bradley Erickson, MD, PhD, from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
 

GE, HCL Technologies partner on healthcare IT

Partnerships & Alliances | Wednesday, February 25 2009
GE Healthcare has formed a structured partnership to certify HCL Technologies on its healthcare IT offering, Centricity Enterprise, and integrate HCL into its Digital Day One effort, which helps new hospitals in emerging markets open as fully digital hospitals.
 

Siemens wins three Soarian contracts

Contracts & Installations | Wednesday, February 25 2009
Two U.S. healthcare facilities have signed multi-year contracts with Siemens Healthcare, which include the installation of Siemens' Soarian Health Information System (HIS) platform. An additional facility also signed a multi-year contract for Soarian and Siemens' MedSeries4, a web-based HIS designed for community hospitals.
 

Stimulus provisions may affect future of AHIC successor

Top Stories | Wednesday, February 25 2009
The National eHealth Collaborative, formerly known as the American Health Information Community (AHIC) Successor, may have been legislated out of existence with the passage of healthcare IT provisions in the recent economic stimulus bill.
 
Web Exclusives

JACR: Early a.m. rad shift expedites communication of urgent findings

An early morning radiologist shift can expedite the communication of urgent findings and improve patient care, according to a study in this month's Journal of the American College of Radiology. “The Joint Commission and the ACR have emphasized the importance of improved communication, particularly of critical test results, for better patient care,” Rathachai Kaewlai, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, shared with Health Imaging News.

Feature: U.S. needs national strategy to curb imaging overutilization

Medical imaging overutilization--a growing concern in the U.S.--exposes patients to unnecessary radiation, while also adding to rising healthcare costs, according to a study published online Aug. 24 in Radiology. In an interview, William R. Hendee, PhD, lead author, reviewed various methods by which medical imaging could be curtailed.

Radiology: Prelim study shows CE breast CT outperforms CT, mammo

Dedicated contrast-enhanced (CE) breast CT delivered significantly improved conspicuity of malignant breast lesions, including ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), compared with unenhanced breast CT and mammography, according to a study published in the September issue of Radiology.

Radiology: Rad role may evolve as image-guided biopsies trend up

CT, ultrasound and MRI have helped shift biopsy techniques away from more invasive approaches toward image-guided percutaneous techniques, according to a study published in the September issue of Radiology. The trend toward less-invasive approaches translates into enhanced safety and efficiency and could lead to more interaction between patients and radiologists.

CMS Webinar: Incentive payments to offset EHR adoption, not reimburse

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) EHR incentive payments are not considered reimbursement for money expended on EHR technology, but are intended to offset the cost associated with adoption and ongoing meaningful use, according to CMS during an Aug. 12 webinar.

CMS webinar: Eligible professionals can expect EHR incentives in 2011

Funding incentives for EHR use is the main goal of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) meaningful use initiative, and there are incentive programs for both hospitals and eligible professionals, according to Elizabeth Holland, health insurance specialist at the Department of Health and Human Services, who spoke during a CMS-sponsored webinar Aug. 8.

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