News

Supply chain executives at the Premier Breakthroughs conference in Nashville this week agreed that materials management departments are often the IT stepchild in their organizations – although EMR innovations are making their jobs a lot easier.

Innovative tools and data that federal health agencies have released to the public can help healthcare providers meet meaningful use of electronic health records, says Todd Park, chief technology officer for the Department of Heath and Human Services. Speaking to an audience at the Government Health IT Conference on June 15, Park offered several examples.

Natural disasters are hitting the U.S. and abroad more often, it seems. In an attempt to connect after disasters hit, family, friends, rescuers, relief agencies, healthcare workers and others have turned to social media – which one expert says is the right tool for the job.

Vivek Kundra, the U.S. Chief Information Officer for the past two and a half years, will be stepping down from his role to serve a joint fellowship at Harvard University this fall.

Entwined in a blame game, few health entities have their HIPAA 5010 conversion underway, despite the looming deadline.

Even doctors who have purchased and successfully implemented electronic health record systems did not always know what they were buying until they were up and running, ONC director Farzad Mostashari, MD, told an audience June 15 at the Government Health IT Conference in the nation's capital.

Despite the growing number of EHRs, classic causes of market failure persist.

Despite disappointments, the cloud model promises "hope beyond the hype."

Unified communications (UC), which has become a hot issue among IT leaders and administrators, has recently been bolstered by video – and the "prognosis for its use in healthcare appears to hold promise," says one expert.

ONC says it is building a draft governance document to ultimately enable more providers to join the Nationwide Health Information Network.