EHR

A new study by a Stanford University research team, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, has found that using EHR and clinical decision support technology may improve administrative efficiency but does "not appear to translate into better outpatient quality of care."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, GE Healthcare and the Alliance of Chicago Community Health Services are collaborating on a project to test the efficacy of actionable health alerts delivered to a physician's electronic medical record.

Seven entities awarded grants

An electronic health card designed to maintain an individual's personal health record and provide a payment card option that can access an individual's HSA, FSA or HRA account was launched during the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's annual conference last month.

Financial rewards are being used as the carrot for healthcare providers to adopt electronic health records, achieve meaningful use and include quality reporting and tracking in outcomes measurement.

David Blumenthal, MD, the national coordinator for health information technology, announced his departure from the ONC just 17 days before the HIMSS11 conference began on Feb. 19 in Orlando, Fla. Blumenthal came onboard just two weeks prior to HIMSS09.

The advisory panel that is developing proposals for the next set of EHR quality measures is weighing whether to follow the same structure for Stage 2 of meaningful use as for Stage 1, with core and specialty items, and whether to carry forward the 2011 measures.

Interoperability, ACOs and meaningful use topped topic list

To forge ahead or hold back – that is the question

Work calls for connecting 500 hospital labs to public health agencies