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A U.S. district court jury in Wisconsin has found in Epic Systems' favor, awarding the EHR giant $940 million in damages in its trade secrets lawsuit against Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services. The massive settlement seems likely to be reduced on appeal.

The bill gives the Veterans Affairs money to digitize claims processing, advance telemedicine, and modernize its electronic health record software, but only once it proves interoperability with the DoD and private sector. 

The imminent set of best practices will help healthcare organizations become more penetration-resistant, more effective at limiting damage attackers can inflict and ultimately better able to withstand cyberattacks. 

Healthcare entities that want to be well positioned against cybersecurity threats must know what resources they have, how those are configured, and tightly control any changes, IT Process Institute chief executive Scott Alldridge said.

Now that Apple is no longer issuing security updates for the software, known vulnerabilities are wide open to exploitation, the security experts say.   

The hospital that gained notoriety earlier this year for paying criminals $17,000 in ransomware attack is now set to build a new emergency department and campus beautification work. 

The diagnoses of 27.3 percent of patients with depression and 27.7 percent of patients with bipolar disorder were missing from their primary care electronic health records, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association has found.

The move toward population health and alternative payment models has seen providers embracing innovative approaches to care delivery, including significant investments in health information technology, according to the spring 2016 Economic Outlook survey from Premier. The study – which polled health system chief executive officers, chief financial officers and chief operating officers – found the requirements of the Affordable Care Act and the demands of population health management leading to big changes in care processes. Most notably, Premier found that the expansion and integration of post-acute care networks is a major priority, cited by 95 percent of C-suite respondents as a key area of focus over the next three years. At the same time, almost as many execs said that project is the biggest challenge their health systems will face in the coming years. "As healthcare continues to transition from an acute-care hospital focus toward an integrated system of providers, the creation of high-value post-acute care networks is essential for success within alternative payment models, such as bundled payment programs and accountable care organizations," Premier COO Michael Alkire said in a statement. Health IT, of course, is an essential enabler to this task, and 84 percent of respondents indicated that technology continues to represent a place for significant capital outlay. Still, challenges remain. More than two-thirds (68 percent) of respondents said their health systems are successfully accessing data from the ambulatory EHRs of their employed physicians. But barely one-third (38 percent) said that they're successfully accessing data from affiliated or non-employed physician networks. "Many affiliated practices lack the proper incentives to invest in high-cost data sharing agreements and interoperable interfaces. We urgently need public policies that require health IT interoperability standards so that providers can access data from any system," said Alkire. Interestingly, one area that's often overlooked with regard to pop health is one that's also ripe for innovation, according to Premier: the supply chain. Many providers are running disparate software systems to track procurement, accounting and contract management, according to the report – leading to "system-wide blind spots" that can hamper efficiency efforts. The expansion of affiliated practices have only complicated matters, according to more than half of poll respondents. "By marrying all the functions associated with purchasing across the continuum on a single IT platform, materials managers can close gaps and generate the significant savings needed to succeed in the new world of payment reform and cost cuts," said Alkire.

Sanders is calling for a single payer system, while Clinton said she would support expanding the Affordable Care Act to insure every American.

The deal ties Dell’s population health solutions into Ensocare’s cloud service for care coordination, the vendors said.