News
Robert Rowley, MD, delves into CMS data reported from meaningful use attestation and thus "arguably the most accurate source, free from vendor hyperbole," to determine which vendors are gaining ground, those that are sinking, and find patterns of doctors switching EHRs.
As mobile health gains ground as a way to improve population health and curb healthcare costs, models for making mHealth financially sustainable are topmost in the minds of stakeholders in the U.S. and across the globe.
Robert Jarrin, senior director of government affairs at Qualcomm Incorporated -- like most people involved in the mHealth world -- is waiting with bated breath for the Food and Drug Administration to finalize its mobile medical apps guidance.
Axial Exchange, a developer of patient engagement technologies, unveiled this week its Patient Engagement Index, which ranks U.S. hospitals based on how involved their patient communities are with their own care.
In the new world of healthcare -- one that is focused on collaboration, accountability, providing better care and cutting costs -- Aetna executives view the insurer's newly minted Healthagen division, unveiled last month at HIMSS13, as an indispensible piece of getting things right.
In looking at the impact clinical decision support systems have had on the healthcare provider community, it is tempting to refer to the old adage "Be careful what you wish for." Because in the healthcare context, it means "You wanted more data, now you've got it. What are you going to do with it?"
National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Farzad Mostashari and the federal Health IT Policy Committee on April 3 took a hard look at a new vendor-led coalition to promote interoperability, called the CommonWell Health Alliance.
Although HIE "is advancing rapidly" in much of the country, "it is being held back by demand--and supply-side friction created by variation in federal and state programs and policies that give unequal and sometimes conflicting emphasis on interoperability," Micky Tripathi, Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative president and the federal Health IT Policy Committee's HIE workgroup chair told the panel April 3.
For 15 years, Congress has bestowed special privileges to some small remote hospitals, usually in rural areas, to help them stay afloat. Medicare pays them more than it pays most hospitals and exempts them from financial pressure to operate efficiently and requirements to reveal how their patients fare. Nearly one in four hospitals qualifies for the program. Despite these benefits, there's new evidence that the quality of many of these hospitals may be deteriorating.
Chicago health information technology company EMRapproved recently announced a partnership with a new collaboration called HealthITxChange, an online community where healthcare practitioners and health IT professionals can share best practices and lessons learned, or "pearls" on EHR adoption.