Health Information Exchange (HIE)

Real data and real results tell the story of the pay-for-performance movement, but market specialists say it starts with the vision of what an organization aspires to be and the priorities it sets.

With so many things coming to a head to advance electronic health record adoption like never before, you could say it's the summer of health IT.

Massachusetts General Hospital, a 900-bed care center located in the heart of Boston, has been using a new secure file transfer solution that has helped solve one piece of meaningful use.

Leadership and execution are key to the success of the Allscripts-Eclipsys merger, according to the Allscripts customers, who say the merger presents both challenges and opportunities.
Chicago-based Allscripts, a company focused on selling electronic health record systems to physician practices and community clinics, announced on June 9 it would enter the hospital market by merging with Eclipsys Corp.

To make sure patients are safe, hospitals have to put their CPOE systems to the test, warns healthcare industry watchdog The Leapfrog Group in a report released Wednesday. Leapfrog called on the federal government to make testing mandatory.

The security of patient data has been, and continues to be, a major problem for the US in achieving its goals for an interoperable healthcare system. According to Kurt Long, CEO of FairWarning IT solutions, the same problem can be found all over the world.

The Office of the National Coordinator is finalizing the details and design of NHIN Direct, the health information exchange tool-set it is preparing to help physicians and small practices share basic healthcare records securely over the Internet.

"I think open source is the right thing to do the same way I believe science is better than alchemy," software pioneer Linus Torvald, who developed the "kernel" that's the basis of the Linux operating system, has said. "Like science, open source allows people to build on a solid base of previous knowledge…. It's just a superior way of working together."

The key to healthcare reform, say some experts, lies in collaboration. But how does one get hospitals and physicians to work with each other?

Hudson Health Plan, a Medicaid managed care organization based in Tarrytown, N.Y., is poised to roll out new software that will mine its voluminous stores of patient data to ensure that members who are in need of extra attention are directed to the nurses and case managers they need.