Diana Manos

With the ringing in of 2011, healthcare IT has a tall order to fill: Interoperability.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has launched a new Innovation Center to oversee and coordinate pilot projects focused on increasing quality and lowering the costs of healthcare.

A Mount Sinai Medical Center surgeon has announced the successful completion of a series of robotic prostate cancer treatment surgeries.

The HIT Policy Committee's Quality Measures Workgroup is taking recommendations from the public until Dec. 23 on clinical quality measures for Stage 2 and Stage 3 meaningful use.

The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) announced on Tuesday three new appointees to its board of trustees. The Commission also named William F. Jessee, MD, president and chief executive officer of the Medical Group Management Association as the new chairman of the board.

In the wake of increased healthcare IT adoption, this year saw increased focus on patient privacy.

In 2010, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology granted more than $250 million to 17 "beacon communities" nationwide that exemplify the positive impact of healthcare IT on population health.

Leaders at the National Institutes of Health and its nonprofit Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) said they would stand behind the advancement of research for the use of mobile phones for healthcare.

Rigorous performance measurement and evaluation - best accomplished with an electronic health record system - will be critical to the success of accountable care organizations, according to industry experts.

It has been almost two years since Congress passed the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) – an unprecedented piece of legislation lawmakers hoped would catapult the advance of healthcare IT.