Innovative New Zealand HIT program offers glimpses of U.S. future
Last week at the Partners Connected Health Symposium 2011, I had the privilege of conducting an extended sit-down interview with George Arnold, program manager for Health of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, which helps manage the health care system and its IT infrastructure. His agency released a...
Behavioral health services get a boost from SAMHSA
While the treatment and coordination of substance use disorders (SUD) are lagging behind mainstream health care, the announcement of 29 new grants from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is a step in the right direction to level the coordination of care playing...
Six more states commence EHR Medicaid programs
The first week of October featured six more states that launched their Medicaid electronic health record (EHR) incentive programs. California, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Utah...
Industry giants collaborating to bring health IT, EHRs to underserved areas
While stories of successful electronic health record (EHR) implementation can bring a sense of calm to other health organizations trying to accomplish the feat, it represents only a portion of those trying to enhance their health IT infrastructure. Another portion include the underserved and rural...
EHR implementation offers wide margins for error, but it’s worth it
By Brita Van Fossen, Editorial Assistant Although there are a significant number of clinical practices that are still selecting a suitable electronic health record (EHR) system, there are also many that have finished the grueling process and are now tackling the next hurdle -- EHR implementation...
IBM’s Watson launches career in clinical decision support
Health care providers face a huge challenge in keeping up with the large volumes of medical literature and research they must read to stay current in their field. Having the help of a supercomputer -- like IBM's...
Avoiding EHR implementation’s deadly sins
By Brita Van Fossen, Editorial Assistant As the meaningful use deadline approaches, increasing numbers of clinical practices are adopting EHRs for use in their daily...
EHR selection succeeds when users have a say
By Brita Van Fossen, Editorial Assistant
As the stage 1 meaningful use deadline approaches, the push for
New study links mortality decrease to meaningful use
A new study funded by the RAND Corporation and published in Health Affairs hints at what could be a payoff in lives saved for all the billions of dollars the U.S. government is doling out for EHR...
Clinical documentation, EMRs harmonize during patient influx
Using electronic medical records (EMRs) to host clinical documentation is one way for hospitals to keep track of all their current patients. Keeping track is critically important when