Jack Beaudoin

When officials at Grant Medical Center, part of the OhioHealth system, looked to improve the hospital’s quality indicators, they knew information technology could help. But unlike many healthcare organizations, they aimed the IT initiative at patients, not clinicians.

If providers delay their acquisition of an EHR until the federal government issues a definition of “meaningful use,” they’re wasting valuable time.

Industry leaders say providers should not delay EMR decisions because of uncertainty around the definition of "meaningful use."

Holding their first joint conference, partisans of Health 2.0 and Ix (Information Therapy) agreed that the U.S. health delivery system needs reform and that technology can provide the means to do so - but disagreed on the prescription for change.

Healthcare IT News, the news source for healthcare information technology, has launched a brand new Web site for 2009 and beyond.