Bernie Monegain
An interdisciplinary partnership has led to the creation of a new center at Western Michigan University (WMU) aimed at bettering the uses of healthcare information technology.
Information technology and data mining capabilities had a role in dismantling what authorities are calling the largest Medicare fraud scheme ever, involving 73 members and associates of organized crime and more than $163 million in fraudulent billing.
The Department of Health and Human Services has awarded nearly $49 million to help 48 states and the District of Columbia plan for health insurance exchanges, including assessing existing information technology systems and infrastructure. However, not all states are eager to take the funds.
RSNA 10, the 96th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, convenes Nov.30-Dec. 3 at McCormick Place in Chicago. The 2010 theme is “Personalized Medicine: In Pursuit of Excellence.”
The Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients (CRISP) has gone live with data exchange statewide. CRISP officials call it a "major step" toward the delivery of critical health information to the right place at the right time.
In West Texas, where unemployment is at 2 percent, the popular chain Chili's had to close some of its restaurants because there were not enough employees to fill the jobs. Imagine what it's like for a healthcare system in that part of the country to recruit IT staff, says Gary L. Barnes, CIO of Medical Center Health System in Odessa, Texas.
With the increasing use of electronic health records in California and across the nation, Carl Elkins, regional CIO for Adventist Health, recognizes the value of clinicians, patients and visitors being able to communicate on mobile phones anywhere in the hospital.
CIOs who are keeping a close watch on the Health Information Exchange (HIE) and Regional Extension Center (REC) efforts in their states are worried the country might be building a Tower of Babel, as Catherine M. Szenczy, senior vice president and CIO of MedStar Health in Columbia, Md., put it.
The nation's healthcare IT chief, David Blumenthal, MD, acknowledged that achieving meaningful use of health IT would be hard work, and then told his audience of more than 600 health system and hospital CIOs and IT managers there would be even harder work ahead.
As you read this November issue of Healthcare IT News, Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Across the country healthcare IT personnel are beginning to count their blessings.