Telehealth

Innovative tools and data that federal health agencies have released to the public can help healthcare providers meet meaningful use of electronic health records, says Todd Park, chief technology officer for the Department of Heath and Human Services. Speaking to an audience at the Government Health IT Conference on June 15, Park offered several examples.

Natural disasters are hitting the U.S. and abroad more often, it seems. In an attempt to connect after disasters hit, family, friends, rescuers, relief agencies, healthcare workers and others have turned to social media – which one expert says is the right tool for the job.

Unified communications (UC), which has become a hot issue among IT leaders and administrators, has recently been bolstered by video – and the "prognosis for its use in healthcare appears to hold promise," says one expert.

Virtua, the largest comprehensive healthcare system in Southern New Jersey, announced Wednesday it is offering a free online personal health record – one that its founder calls a "hybrid PHR" – to consumers living in the three counties that it serves.

Can meaningful use really be condensed into an elementary school exercise? Perhaps not in reality, but it works as an effective analogy for achieving success, says one interoperability specialist.

Knowledge is power, and Highmark – one of the largest Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in the country – is launching a new wellness initiative with Navigenics that works with genetic knowledge to improve individual health.

As health IT work ramps up across the country, the HIMSS Career Services Center aims to make it easier for new graduates of the Office of the National Coordinator's HIT Workforce Development programs to find jobs via HIMSS JobMine with new access from the ONC website and enhanced offerings.

Presidential candidates are beginning to line up in the past month, as more Republicans declared their intentions of running. Several of them have strong ties to health IT.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has launched its attestation system – where hospitals and physicians participating in Medicare can verify online that they are meaningful users of certified electronic health records.

To the healthcare executives who attended the American Telemedicine Association’s 2011 conference last month, the sight of a 3-year-old adopted Chinese orphan playing on stage was enough to prove the value of their pursuits.