Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH)

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Medical Record Advocate Dr. Donald M. Voltz Leads National Grassroots Petition Drive To Reduce 1,000 Daily Medical Error Deaths

Press Release | Dr. Donald Voltz | March 23, 2015

A national grass roots campaign launches today to reduce the medical miscommunications in healthcare systems that cause almost 1,000 deaths a day in the U.S. This campaign seeks to forge a government and industry solution in solving this lapse in electronic healthcare communications, a cornerstone of Obamacare. The campaign is headed by Dr. Donald Voltz...Voltz petition on Change.org demands that the government and medical industry implement a solution to end what is a very easy problem to fix.  Once signed by 25,000 U.S. residents age 18 and older, the petition will be sent to the White House for review and a specific, timely action plan.

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Medical Scribes To The Rescue

Jason Ruben | Marin Medical Society (MMS) | September 1, 2012

Electronic health records are supposed to revolutionize healthcare. Why now the physician backlash? As a practicing emergency physician I can attest that current EHR systems are so poorly designed that most emergency physicians I know loathe using them. Read More »

Medicare Paid Doctors, Hospitals $6.3 Billion To Adopt E-Health Records

Bob Brewin | Nextgov | October 24, 2013

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services paid out $6.3 billion to hospitals and medical professionals in 2012 to adopt electronic health record systems, the Government Accountability Office reported Thursday. Read More »

mHealth, Data Analytics See $4.7 Billion In 2014 VC Funding

Jennifer Bresnick | EHR Intelligence | January 16, 2015

The past year saw a $4.7 billion investment in healthcare IT companies, according to a report from Mercom Capital Group, as venture capital firms seek to promote lucrative technologies in the practice-facing and consumer-facing markets.  Data analytics, population health management, and clinical decision support products were among the most likely to grab investor attention in 2014, while mHealth, telehealth, and wearable technologies saw $2.3 billion in major deals...

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MU Creates 'Medical Bridges To Nowhere'

Erin McCann | Healthcare IT News | January 15, 2014

As far as Patrick Soon-Shiong is concerned, the $34 billion health IT and electronic medical record incentive program was a grave misstep for the healthcare industry -- but not necessarily for the reasons one might think. Read More »

NHIN, NwHIN And Healtheway

Roberta Mullin | Government Health IT | September 11, 2012

Recently events have happened that impact both the network and the exchange. In May the ONC issued a Request for Information (RFI) on conditions of trusted exchange for the NwHIN.
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North Carolina's Central Regional Hospital Rolls Out VistA For Less Than $1 Million

Central Regional Hospital, a state psychiatric and medical facility located in Butner, North Carolina, has just completed a full-scale implementation of the open source VistA electronic health record (EHR) system. The hospital, after three years of work, was able to self-implement and customize the fully-featured EHR at a cost of less than $1 million. The 398-bed hospital serves the acute and long-term inpatient mental health and medical needs of North Carolina citizens from 26 counties and employs more than 1,900 staff, including 50 doctors, 300 professional nurses, 700 nursing assistants, 40 psychologists, and 70 social workers. Central Regional Hospital is a major teaching site for 23 psychiatric residents per year from Duke University and the University of North Carolina medical schools.  It also provides training for medical students from both schools as well as psychiatry subspecialty fellowship training. Read More »

Obamacare, Open Data Could Drive Health IT Innovation

Brian T. Horowitz | eWeek | May 29, 2013

Government regulations and open data initiatives inspire investment in platforms that support accountable care organizations. Read More »

Office Of The National Coordinator For Health IT Tackles Pressing EHR Issues

Sheri Porter | AAFP | June 12, 2013

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, which was enacted as part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is designed to stimulate the adoption of health information technology in the United States. [...] Read More »

On the Need for Human-Centered Design in EHRs

Health information technology (HIT) has become the hottest political issue in Washington. The healthcare industry in the United States is facing a crisis as medical facilities have spent hundreds of billions of dollars implementing electronic health record (EHR) systems, yet patients and the physicians and nurses that care for them are seeing few benefits. Congress has been holding hearings focused on detailing the problems and trying to write legislation that will provide a solution to the crisis. The HIT interoperability bill drafted by Rep. Michael C. Burgess (R-TX) is one example. These are welcome first steps. However, none of the bills currently before Congress, and none of the hearings, are addressing the two most important issues facing medical providers today. These are lack of EHR usability, and the inability to have a patients’ entire medical record at the point of care.

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ONC Offers Guidance To Providers Ineligible For MU

Mike Miliard | Government Health IT | September 11, 2013

As it works to broaden health information exchange capabilities across the care continuum, the Office of the National Coordinator has drawn up a certification guidance aimed at technology developers serving specialized providers who are ineligible for Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive payments. Read More »

Only 12% Of Docs Meet Meaningful Use Rules

David Pittman | MedPage Today | February 20, 2013

Just over 12% of about 509,000 eligible physicians said they met requirements for meaningful use incentives for electronic health records (EHRs), early study results show. Read More »

OpenEMR Launches Easy Install Option for Amazon's Cloud Services

Press Release | OEMR | August 15, 2017

OpenEMR, the most popular open source electronic health records (EHR) and medical practice management solution, upgraded their cloud-services capability with the latest 5.0.0.4 release. OpenEMR can now be operated as an out of the box cloud-services solution using Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform. With several simple steps, end users can get their OpenEMR on the cloud and take advantage of all the benefits that the cloud provides.

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PokitDok Achieves EHNAC Cloud-Enabled and Outsourced Services Accreditation for Health Information Exchange

Press Release | PokitDok | January 9, 2017

PokitDok, a software development platform for the business of healthcare, announced today it has achieved full accreditation with the Outsourced Services Accreditation Program (OSAP) for Health Information Exchange (HIE) and the Cloud-Enabled Accreditation Program (CEAP) from the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC)...

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The 128-Byte Data Field That Could Save Lives And Billions Of Dollars

Dan Munro | Forbes | March 25, 2013

I can easily think of 5 articles that highlight the extraordinary waste and cost of the U.S. healthcare system. [...] The PwC report concluded that about $1.2 trillion was wasted – each year. Here’s how PwC further categorized that waste... Read More »