Interoperability
Watertown, Mass.-based athenahealth announced Jan. 7 that it would acquire San Mateo, Calif.-based Epocrates. It's a match hailed by the executives of both companies, and also by industry analysts, as a smart move. Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush explains his vision for athenahealth and for a connected healthcare system.
The year 2012 was the year when data showed its muscle, whether in the presidential elections or in demonstrating how deeply entrenched the adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records had become.
ACOs are an idea whose time has come, according to Gene Lindsey, MD, president and CEO of Newton, Mass.-based Atrius Health.
Free the data! Empower the patient! Break down those walls! Collaborate! Innovate!
Hospitals can have hundreds of IT systems. Vendors have built proprietary databases. Not everyone follows the same standards. Health systems fear sharing data with competitors. Policymakers have not focused on health information exchange or EHR usability.
Electronic Health Records
The U.S. Coast Guard has awarded a $17 million contract to Science Applications International Corporation to provide services and operational support for USCG's Integrated Health Information System (IHiS), officials announced this month.
Thinking of gift ideas for that special health IT someone this holiday season? Want to explore the creative side of gift-giving and outdo last year's gift of that Epic EMR or RTLS tracking? Look no further.
For the coming new year, healthcare groups and their business associates need to get their privacy and security houses in order, as they will be facing new audits and more monetary enforcement surrounding data breaches -- this according to Leon Rodriguez, director of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) at the Department of Health and Human Services.
The recommendations for Stage 3 of meaningful use are now out for comment. Coincidentally or not, there is a new degree of pessimism about when health IT interoperability will ever be achieved.
The National eHealth Collaborative's Health Information Exchange Learning Network has recommendations for tackling some of the most challenging HIE issues.