Erin McCann
2014's second quarter brought with it a boost in earnings for cloud-based EHR company athenahealth, which reported gains this time around after disappointing numbers last quarter. Net losses were also down significantly, company officials announced last week.
It's a chilling reality -- one often overlooked in annual mortality statistics: Preventable medical errors persist as the No. 3 killer in the U.S. -- third only to heart disease and cancer -- claiming the lives of some 400,000 people each year. At a Congressional hearing July 17, patient safety officials put their best ideas forward on how to solve the crisis, with IT often at the center of discussions.
Sure, HIPAA adds a layer of privacy protection for certain health data -- if organizations actually comply with it -- but there remains myriad avenues of mining health data and selling to the highest bidder that do not fall under the purview of HIPAA's privacy and security rules. And they may surprise you.
BlackBerry continues to expand further its scope in the healthcare arena after one of its subsidiaries unveiled a new clinical operating system for medical devices.
Record amounts of cash continue to pour into the digital health arena, with the mid year numbers seeing record highs for year-over-year growth, according to a new Rock Health report. The explosive growth in digital health funding, however, has some analysts uneasy over a potential bubble in the market.
The 33-hospital Mercy health system in St. Louis has inked its first deal to market its customized Epic electronic health record system. The Gastonia, N.C.-based CaroMont Health signed the contract with Mercy in efforts to consolidate its myriad platforms, officials announced Thursday.
Jocelyn Samuels will come to the Office for Civil Rights from the Department of Justice, where she was acting assistant attorney general.
The Office for Civil Rights, the HHS division responsible for enforcing HIPAA, is slated to get a new director after the official departure of Leon Rodriguez.
Joanne Sunquist knows Epic. As the chief information officer at the four-hospital HealthEast Care System in Minnesota, she's successfully spearheaded the new $135 million Epic electronic medical record implementation within an aggressive 14-month timeline across the hospitals, which went live June 1. The health system's 14 clinics will follow suit by December.
Working on the patient portal portion of Stage 2 meaningful use? Officials at Mayo Clinic can offer some valuable insight into their own portal rollout -- challenges that have arisen, privacy concerns and how to do it right.