Mike Miliard

A new study from HIMSS Analytics and Kroll Advisory Solutions shows that, a diligent focus on security compliance notwithstanding, healthcare providers are still badly lacking when it comes to privacy protections. In fact, data breaches have only increased in recent years.

Intel Fellow Eric Dishman speaks with Healthcare IT News about the value of mobile health tools and personal health records -- and about the challenges and opportunities for more empowered patients.

Speaking at the HxD Conference, new U.S. CTO says that the future holds more good than we can even imagine right now, touts innovation, government data as drivers.

"We're in a classically disruptive moment right now," said newly-minted U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park, speaking Monday at the Healthcare Experience Design (HxD) conference, "from which more good will come than we can possibly imagine."

Sometime in the next couple months, pending regulatory clearance, Caradigm – the new health IT company launched this past December by Microsoft and GE Healthcare – will get down to business. By combining GE's clinical applications with Microsoft's intelligence platform, officials say the new firm intends to help bring about, on a global scale, “a paradigm shift in the delivery of care."

It's no longer enough for an infant's pajamas to simply keep the little bundle of joy warm and dry at night. Nowadays, PJs should be able to constantly monitor the baby's vital signs and emotional state, and then relay that information wirelessly to the doting parent's iPad or smartphone.

One of the most intriguing areas at HIMSS12 this past month was the Intelligent Hospital Pavilion. Presented in partnership with the RFID in Healthcare Consortium, HIMSS' walk-though mock-up offered an up-close look at the myriad ways radio-frequency identification (RFID), real-time location system (RTLS), sensor and wireless technologies – developed by companies such as AeroScout, AwarePoint, Intelligent InSites and RFID Global Solutions – can optimize inventory management, improve patient safety, streamline clinical workflow and more.

It's often said that the emergency department is the "front door" of the hospital. And recent years have seen more people than ever making their way through that entry.

On February 24, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) published its proposed rule for the certification of electronic health records.

Earlier this year, a Washington think tank whose healthcare wing is led by two former Senate Majority Leaders, put its weight behind more widespread use of IT in healthcare organizations nationwide.