Patient Access

Director of informatics at the University of Southern California says better patient identification tools can reduce risk of incorrect diagnoses and, in certain cases, death.

Lancaster Regional Medical Center said it has seen big drops in readmissions and emergency room returns, with the Pennsylvania hospital giving much of the credit to a referral management platform from par8o.

The Commonwealth Fund has released "Aiming Higher," its 2015 scorecard measuring the performance of health systems state by state.

Meridian Health, the New Jersey health system, will launch telehealth services in early 2016 and has enlisted Lewisville, Texas-based Teladoc for round-the-clock access to its network of licensed physicians.

Evariant, which offers a CRM platform for healthcare providers, raised $42.3 million in a Series C round of financing. Goldman Sachs led the funding.

One-third of chronic condition patients who exchanged emails with their care providers said the communication improved their care, a recent Kaiser Permanente study published in The American Journal of Managed Care shows.

Demand and technological capabilities are driving change, Cathy Riesenwitz, a researcher with software firm Capterra, told Healthcare IT News.

The Verona, Wisconsin-based EHR giant will provide Vanderbilt University Medical Center with clinical, administrative and billing software and also MyChart, Epic's patient portal.

WellDoc, whose BlueStar technology is focused on adults with Type 2 diabetes, has drawn $22 million in a Series B round of funding from Samsung Ventures and existing investor Merck Global Health Innovation Fund. The company will use the money to continue commercialization and accelerate adoption of BlueStar.

Though many think remote patient monitoring is the future of healthcare, a new report by Chilmark Research claims issues with implementation are keeping providers from jumping in despite its many promises.