Quality and Safety
Montana's governor is urging lawmakers to reconsider their refusal of federal funding for electronic healthcare technology. Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D-Mont.) says rejecting the incentive money will increase healthcare costs and decrease jobs.
A national index for measuring and mapping diabetes in the United States has been launched to help prevent the disease and help determine outcomes and costs associated with it.
Online messaging can deliver organized follow-up care for depression effectively and efficiently, according to a randomized controlled trial of 208 Group Health patients. The Journal of General Internal Medicine published the results online earlier this month.
Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) has introduced My Cancer Genome, a personalized cancer decision support tool to help physicians and researchers track the latest developments in personalized cancer medicine and connect with clinical research trials for their patients.
The Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC) has launched a new Center for Accountable Care. The goal, according to PCPCC, is to help ensure that a "strong, robust patient-centered primary care model is at the foundation of accountable care organizations nationwide, and that programs and policies related to ACOs help maintain this focus."
Kaiser Permanente Southern California and Kaiser Permanente Northern California were the only health plans to earn four stars in the category Meeting National Standards of Care in the just-released HMO Quality Report from the California Office of the Patient Advocate. Kaiser executives credited the dedication of the healthcare team and an industry-leading electronic health record for helping the plans achieve excellence.
A survey sponsored by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) has revealed significant concerns about the measures put forth in the preliminary Stages 2 and 3 meaningful use criteria.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, through its regional extension centers, has started recruiting “physician champions” who are well on their way to becoming meaningful users of electronic health records (EHRs) to help others in their area get over the hurdles of digitizing their medical records.
Hospital executives and patients agree that healthcare needs a revamp, and they're looking to information technology to make that happen, according to a recent survey. But when it comes to their technology desires and concerns there are some differences.
Apple introduced the iPad 2 on Tuesday with a special event that included a video highlighting the technology's use in different fields, with an appearance by John Halamka, MD, chief information officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.