More health IT standards development work on the way for HITSC
Just when stakeholders and policymakers thought they were busy enough developing health IT standards for meaningful use, more work is on the way. Ruefully remarking that "no good deed goes unpunished," David Blumenthal, the physician who heads the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT...
Sankaran steps down from Federal Health Architecture program
Health IT interoperability leader Vish Sankaran announced yesterday that he is stepping down from his role as director of the Federal Health Architecture (FHA) program. The FHA, which is managed by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health...
Will no Flash for iPad hurt its chances in health care?
Last week, Adobe Systems -- which owns Flash -- abandoned its plans to support Flash on the Apple iPhone and iPad. The former is a smash-hit smartphone among doctors, nurses and other providers, while the latter could...
Choosing the right EHR vendor, and other SearchHealthIT.com news
Of all the EHR vendors out there -- especially a cadre of new ones catering to solo docs and small group practices -- how do you pick one that will be around for the long haul? Providers who look at only the obvious factors of price and usability could be making a costly mistake if the vendor goes...
Issue of patient engagement taken up by advocacy groups
Two advocacy organizations are offering patients and families the chance to report medical errors in an effort to paint a broad picture of patient safety.
The Empowered Patient Coalition and the Consumers Union Safe Patient Project have teamed up to offer an
Upcoming HealthVault offering from Microsoft to get clinical data flowing
A new version of HealthVault, expected to be released by Microsoft in the third quarter, aims to let personal health records (PHR) flow from patients to providers to hospitals and back again.
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Top 10 meaningful use challenges for eligible professionals
With so many requirements to satisfy in achieving Stage 1 of meaningful use, health care providers face a considerable number of challenges to becoming fully compliant. A recently published report from Computer Sciences Corp., a technology software and...
Not there yet: CMS still toiling away on final meaningful use regulations
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) continues to shape a couple thousand comments into a final rule governing the meaningful use of health IT -- but it's not finished yet. The agency has finished cataloging all the comments it received on the proposed rule, and is preparing...
Tread carefully when choosing an EHR vendor
This is a crazy time for electronic health record (EHR) software vendors. It smacks of the Web boom of 1998-2000, where sites like Pets.com, grocery home-delivery site Webvan and eToys rose to prominence and quickly flamed out, despite hundreds of millions of dollars in venture backing. Those of us...
Creating a health IT business plan, and other SearchHealthIT.com news
Health care IT managers have a lot on their plates these days. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act and other federal proposals will have a significant impact on both compliance and health IT infrastructure, and IT managers need to stay on top of it...