Bernie Monegain

Don't overemphasize traditional electronic medical records as the answer to transforming healthcare, cautions the head of the Center for Connected Health.

Partners HealthCare will roll out new acute care and preoperative clinical technology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

The Medical Records Institute has announced finalists for the 2009 TEPR (Towards the Electronic Patient Record) Awards, which will be given out during the 25th annual conference Feb. 1-5 in Palm Springs, Calif.

Marion General Hospital in Marion, Ind. will develop and roll out enterprise-wide interoperable portals for physicians, patients, employees and consumers over the next two years.

Eighty-five percent of hospitals in the contracting phase of an IT acquisition have signed with a CCHIT-certified vendor since November 2007, according to data from the HIMSS Analytics Database.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman's advice for President-elect Barack Obama is to spend "on things of lasting value," including healthcare information technology.

United HealthGroup and Aetna have agreed to pay millions of dollars to members who were scammed in what New York investigators called a "rigged" billing system.

Thousands of lives - and an estimated $400 billion in healthcare spending - could be saved by putting healthcare information technology to work and adopting best practices, said former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, the founder of the Center for Health Transformation.

The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology has issued a call for public comment on its plan for expansion of its health information technology certification programs.

Some of the country's top CEOs urged Congress on Wednesday to include healthcare IT as part of the economic stimulus plan.