Electronic Health Records (EHR, EMR)

Meaningful use -- it's not just for healthcare providers anymore. Patients are paying attention to meaningful use of electronic health data; they're understanding, and now they want it.

Electronic health records may be doing great things for patient care, but they have also made it easier to commit fraud, according to the findings of a new report from the Office of Inspector General.

The Mass HIway Health Information Exchange has entered into the next phase, with new tools for locating and retrieving medical records across the state. Gov. Deval L. Patrick and healthcare leaders gathered at Beth Israel Medical Center in Boston on Jan. 8 to show how data exchange works -- on a secure network with the click of a button.

Patient portals have proven to be far more than just a convenient tool for patients to access their health information. These Web-based portals are also doing big things for improving care.

HIMSS Analytics awarded Cincinnati Children's Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, with its Stage 7 Award, and 14 of its associated ambulatory clinics the Stage 7 Ambulatory Awards.

Hospitals were treading carefully around CPOE a decade ago, especially after Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles turned off its CPOE system in early 2003. Today is a different story. Meaningful use is helping to drive CPOE uptake, workflows are better designed and physicians expect more automation. Yet there remain many challenges, industry insiders say.

A rural Montana hospital has filed suit against a big name electronic health record system provider alleging the company violated its contract by both failing to install an EHR system by the set deadline and not providing a system that meets 2014 federal meaningful use criteria.

With Congress working on a long-term Medicare "SGR fix" in the recent short-term budget deal, lawmakers laid down seeds for addressing issues such as value-based reimbursement and EHR compatibility.

The push for meaningful use Stage 3 has reached a point where a confluence of power structures are ready for more breakthroughs -- hence, the impetus for collaboration among IHE USA, ONC and S&I Framework, officials from these groups say.

The U.S. Defense Department has furthered its investments in digital radiography and medical imaging systems after awarding a one-year, $70.2 million contract to imaging provider Carestream Health.