Electronic Health Records (EHR, EMR)

In a Jan. 14 letter to National Coordinator Farzad Mostashari, MD, commenting on the Health IT Policy Committee's proposals for Stage 3 meaningful use, James Madara, MD, executive vice president and CEO of the American Medical Association, put forth some of the AMA's "concerns and recommendations" about the program.

Computer mistakes like the one that produced incorrect prescriptions for thousands of Rhode Island patients are probably far more common and dangerous than the Obama administration wants you to believe, says Drexel University's Scot Silverstein, MD.

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) announced late Tuesday that its board has selected Colorado Health Medical Group's Russell P. Branzell to serve as its new president and chief executive officer.

Texas Health Resources recently received the Richard A. Norling Premier Alliance Excellence Award for its healthcare leadership. According to Ferdinand Velasco, MD, THR's vice president and CMIO, the award comes as a recognition of what the whole organization is doing around population health.

The five most recent CIOs of the Year look into the future and imagine what healthcare IT will look like in 10 years. What they see ahead, they say, is both challenging and exciting.

At the National Health Policy Conference in Washington this past week, officials from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and the National Institute of Standards and Technology made the case that EHRs must be usable -- and useful -- lest the huge investments in them be wasted.

U.S. doctors' use of health IT has been sharply increasing, up from 46 percent who used an EMR in their practice in 2009 to 69 percent in 2012, according to a survey of nearly 9,800 primary care physicians representing 11 nations. The Commonwealth Fund released findings of the survey in November 2012, and expanded on several drill-down topics during an online presentation Feb. 5.

National health programs have been, or are now, becoming electronic, just as health records are. Many of these programs will play major roles in either incenting or conflicting with efforts to advance the electronic healthcare infrastructure. And as with other industries, becoming electronic changes the way these programs can and should be carried out themselves. John Loonsk, MD, discusses how it might all shake out.

The Office of the National Coordinator's Health IT Standards Committee is urging ONC leaders to lean towards menu options and certification for use cases on Stage 3 meaningful use rather than core requirements, and to especially keep in mind that standards for a variety of clinical procedures are still evolving.

Leaders of healthcare policy encouraged the industry to move ahead faster during a keynote address at the National Health Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 4 "...help us speed up the rate of change," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius encouraged conference attendees.