Dr. John Loonsk

The meaningful use Stage 2 NPRM suggests SMTP as the transaction technology to connect all EHRs -- a decision more political than tech-savvy -- but the standard introduces new security concerns, supports only push, and falls short of what many people consider necessary for health information exchange. But there's still time left in the public comments period.

John Loonsk, MD, explains how health IT professionals offering opinions on the meaningful use Stage 2 NPRM can make substantive suggestions without actually weakening the regulation.

Will accountable care organizations follow the lead of HIEs in analyzing data across participating providers, or surpass them?

Or the most important health policy decision hidden as an obscure health IT technical evaluation that you may never have heard of.

The years since the attacks have seen a series of events that, particularly when taken together, display the need for a broadly interconnected health system.

The Accountable Care Organization (ACO) draft rule is out, and the political, clinical and technical trek is on to establish these lynchpins of the Affordable Care Act and health reform.