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Even as President Obama gave a State of the Union address this week in which he celebrated an emerging healthcare system where "patients will be able to have face-to-face video chats with their doctors" and "veterans can download their electronic medical records with a click of the mouse," many Republican lawmakers were rallying around a bill that imperils funding for meaningful use incentives.
Health information technology has the power to drive advances in personalized medicine that will offer better-targeted treatments - and save the health system money - according to a new report from the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings.
In an effort to boost drug safety, a new online service has been launched that allows doctors to check the FDA-approved labeling for the most commonly prescribed drugs. The service is at the center of a new campaign being led by PDR Network called "Know the Label."
Hospital watchdog The Leapfrog Group has released the elective delivery rates of 773 hospitals online. The data reveals significant variation among hospitals in their early elective - meaning without medical reason - rates of Cesarean section and elective inductions, with some hospitals having 10 times the rate of others.
HealthGrades, Inc., an online healthcare quality rating and services company, has identified the top 50 cities for hospital care. The list recognizes cities that have the highest concentration of top performing hospitals - those ranked the top 5 percent nationwide for care.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded grants to 44 healthcare organizations to improve access to healthcare in rural areas.
The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology has announced that EHR technology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston has been certified as a complete EHR under CCHIT's new EHR Alternative Certification for Hospitals (EACH), an ONC-ATCB certification program for installed hospital EHR technology.
"So the kid might be in daycare. The parent is at work. The nurse connects to the system. Let's say the doctor is on the golf course. He gets a call. But he doesn't want to leave. So he pulls out a smartphone. Three different people in three different places can join the collaboration."
Seeking to expand its suite of clinical solutions for unified patient information management, NaviNet, the biggest healthcare communications network in the country, announced in December its acquisition of McLean, Va.-based Prematics, a provider of mobile care management solutions.
In a move it says will save money and headaches – and which will be especially useful in the healthcare industry – HP has introduced what it bills as the first unified system to accelerate the reliable, secure delivery of software applications and services across heterogeneous environments.