EHR
There is "no distinction between information management and healthcare," said Peter Salgo, MD, associate director of surgical intensive care at Presbyterian Hospital in New York, in his rousing presentation at AHIMA on Tuesday. And the people who know how to synthesize, store, and integrate medical information will lead the massive healthcare changes of the 21st century.
"We're at an inflection point," said Paul Tang, MD, vice president and chief medical information officer at Palo Alto Medical Foundation, in his keynote speech at AHIMA on Tuesday. "For once, the stars are aligned."
Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin learned a few things in her old job running the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in Alabama. First, the job didn't just entail "sewing up the shark bites" - there were plenty of "land sharks" (regulators and red-tape dispensers) to fend off, too. Second, EHRs are an absolute must-have.
Two and a half years after its launch, Google Health has unveiled a "top-to-bottom" redesign – with a new focus on attracting a users who want to "actively manage their health and wellness."
The U.S. ambulatory EHR market, which was at $1.3 billion in 2009, is forecast to reach $2.6 billion in 2012, according to new analysis from research firm Frost & Sullivan.
Not-for-profit HealthInfoNet, the state of Maine’s health information exchange, and the designated Regional Extension Center for the state, has received a $4.7 million federal grant to help providers adopt electronic health records and achieve meaningful use.
MEDS-ED Link, a project of the Northern Virginia Regional Health Information Organization (NoVaRHIOsm) in conjunction with Inova Health System and GE Healthcare, recently launched to provide emergency docs at the hospital with access to patient medication histories.
California's critical-access, rural hospitals got a big boost when UnitedHealth Group announced it would provide $10 million in loans to help them adopt electronic health records and improve their health IT systems, and $1 million in grants to jumpstart the process.
Hillside Avenue Family and Community Medicine has reduced the need for patient emergency room usage by more than 10 percent over the past year. The Rhode Island practice used McKesson's Practice Partner electronic health record solution to improve the health of chronically ill patients.
The sale of hospital HER systems nearly doubled in 2009 over 2008, driven by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, according to a new report buy research firm KLAS. Epic and Cerner captured nearly 70 percent of the new large hospital sales.