Interoperability

Eastern Connecticut Health Network, Inc. (ECHN) is building an HIE, and the health system has tapped MobileMD to help get the job done, signing a five-year agreement.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office argues that, while "federal law provides CIOs with adequate authority to manage IT for their agencies," some "limitations exist that impede their ability to exercise this authority."

Eighteen California hospitals, health systems, clinics and physician groups -- many of them catering to underserved populations -- will receive grants totaling nearly $20 million from Blue Shield of California to help them participate more effectively in accountable care organizations (ACOs).

Orion Health will acquire Microsoft's hospital information system (HIS) software assets, including RIS/PACS, previously known as Amalga HIS. The two companies will also collaborate to co-market their health information exchange and data aggregation and analysis products.

Within the past month, 14 critical access hospitals have joined the Nebraska Health Information Initiative (NeHII), Nebraska's statewide health information exchange.

Small and resource-poor, the Western Washington Rural Health Care Collaborative (WWRHCC), has shown it is not afraid to tackle - and complete - big projects, such as building an HIE from scratch and developing a telepharmacy system.

The title of this commentary is pure jargon, but does express the issue at hand. An alternative title "The Most Important Health Policy Decision Hidden as an Obscure Health IT Technical Evaluation that You May Never Have Heard of," would have also been accurate, but is grammatically unsound and too flippant for an important subject.

Will accountable care organizations follow the lead of HIEs in analyzing data across participating providers, or surpass them? In this series, we are examining ways health IT can best support the goals of accountable care organizations (ACOs) for health reform.

Health eVillages will provide decision support tools and technology via mobile devices to remote areas of the globe where quality healthcare is in short supply.

As health organizations begin to feel their way toward accountable care models, a new report from KLAS explores how providers and vendors are putting the pieces together, finding varying levels of confidence in IT solutions' integration ability.