EHR

Minnesota-based IT company helps health plans, employers connect with health clubs and manage employees' workout routines.

When it comes to disclosing identifiable patient information, family doctors are reluctant to do so – even for public health purposes such as tracking influenza, according to a recent study.

The Ontario Medical Association is calling for electronic medical records to be a top priority for all political parties as they prepare for the province's upcoming election.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued an interim final rule aimed at cutting red tape for providers. The rule won't be published in the Federal Register until Friday, but so far the Medical Group Management Association has weighed in as being "pleased" and “encouraged” by the proposal.

Diabetes is anything but “one-size-fits-all” disease. So HealthPartners researchers and physicians have developed a new tool called Diabetes Wizard, which uses uses EHRs to customize individual care.

With hospitals "raising the bar" to meet meaningful use requirements, new positions are being created within IT departments that have a focus on quality and data, says one consultant.

After decades of fits and starts, electronic health records adoption is becoming reality, thanks in no small part to the federal incentive program for meaningful use of EHRs. But the health IT industry still has plenty of room to evolve.

The Health IT Policy Committee, the advisory panel to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), voted June 8 to recommend delaying the start of Stage 2 of meaningful use until 2014.

– The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced it has paid out more than $75 million for the meaningful use of electronic health records under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) approved in June the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as the ONC-approved accreditor (ONC-AA) for the permanent certification program for health information technology.