Electronic Health Records (EHR, EMR)
Look up the term "bioinformatics" and the definition will most likely be a convoluted series of references to algorithms, databases, artificial intelligence, computation theory, discrete mathematics, signal processing, statistics and a half-dozen other terms for complicated concepts. In essence, it is difficult to explain because there are so many facets to it.
Two years ago this summer, the meaningful use Stage 1 final rule was revealed to an eager public. Immediately, hospitals and physician practices got down to business. Since then, core measures have been tackled and menus sets have been ticked off lists. Some criteria were relatively doable, some have remained maddeningly problematic, but more than $2.5 billion in checks have been mailed out so far.
Health IT professionals say disaster recovery and business continuity are their most pressing needs when it comes to dealing with huge and ever-growing volumes of health data, according to a recent survey from BridgeHead Software. Storage is a sticking point too, they said, but also noted that the cloud is "still not ready for prime time."
Some veteran technologies know how to stand their ground -- this despite the modern technology takeover threatening to expunge their very existence. Video was slated to kill the radio star, but no crime was recorded. The automobile industry was expected to drive out railroads, but trains are still on track.
Lobbying gets a bad rep. With billions spent each year by special interest groups and remnants of the Jack Abramoff massacre lingering in peoples' minds, its reputation doesn't come as a big surprise.
A study by Harvard Medical School-affiliated researchers, published in June in the Archives of Internal Medicine, showed that Massachusetts physicians who used electronic health records saw a reduction in malpractice claims.
The prescription drug abuse epidemic throughout the United States may be a difficult pill to swallow, but states have pledged to combat the issues and are utilizing health information technology to help them do it. Prescription drug monitoring programs (PMPs) are one tool utilized by states to curb issues of overprescribing, doctor shopping and drug abuse.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a national survey on July 18 on the use of electronic health records by office-based physicians. The results should help fuel the fire over any lasting debate as to whether stimulus package funding used to incentivize the use of EHRs was well spent.
Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the substance of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a collective sigh can be heard, of relief by some and frustration by others, but certainly of avoided tumult.
"The true number of military personnel injured in Iraq is in the hundreds of thousands – maybe even more than half a million – if you just go a bit beyond the Pentagon's narrowly-tailored definition of 'wounded in action," writes Dan Froomkin, deputy editor of Niemanwatchdog.org in a December 2011 piece on the site.