Government & Policy
New Orleans Health Commissioner Karen DeSalvo, MD, will take over as national coordinator for health information technology, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Dec. 19.
Rebecca Coelius, MD, ONC's Medical Officer for Innovations, talks with Bernie Monegain about how ONC defines innovation and is driving advancements in areas such as Blue Button and standards of interoperability.
HIMSS is working with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through HHS' Innovator in Residence program, to develop a strategy for nationwide patient data matching.
Former Microsoft executive Kurt DelBene will take over day-to-day responsibility for the smooth running of HealthCare.gov. The government's insurance marketplace is just recovering from the pain of a bungled launch. Jeff Zients, who is credited for bringing it back on track, is about to start his new job as a director of the National Economic Council.
The technologist who helped bring the world Microsoft Word, Excel and other software that's now a part of modern personal and corporate life is taking on the vast challenge of managing the federal insurance marketplace.
A new report from Experian Data Breach Resolution says healthcare will face "a perfect storm" for breaches in 2014. The Affordable Care Act, with its increased activity, as well as more people signing up for health insurance will only make the target that much larger.
When it comes to data breaches, don't think in terms of "will it happen?" Think: "when it happens, will I be prepared?" One expert says 2014 is going to open the floodgates on healthcare data breaches.
Capturing the right data at the point-of-contact with patients, then storing it in the EHR in a readily usable form, sets the stage for disparate providers to exchange that information.
The Office of the Inspector General found that nearly all of the more than 800 hospitals it surveyed in late 2012 had federally recommended EHR audit functions in place, but "may not be using them to their full extent," while only a quarter of them had policies on the notoriously problematic practice of copying-and-pasting.
Some front-runners are wanting desperately to harness mobile technologies to improve care for individual patients, but so much depends on the changing payment model.