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In looking at the impact clinical decision support systems have had on the healthcare provider community, it is tempting to refer to the old adage "Be careful what you wish for." Because in the healthcare context, it means "You wanted more data, now you've got it. What are you going to do with it?"
National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Farzad Mostashari and the federal Health IT Policy Committee on April 3 took a hard look at a new vendor-led coalition to promote interoperability, called the CommonWell Health Alliance.
Although HIE "is advancing rapidly" in much of the country, "it is being held back by demand--and supply-side friction created by variation in federal and state programs and policies that give unequal and sometimes conflicting emphasis on interoperability," Micky Tripathi, Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative president and the federal Health IT Policy Committee's HIE workgroup chair told the panel April 3.
For 15 years, Congress has bestowed special privileges to some small remote hospitals, usually in rural areas, to help them stay afloat. Medicare pays them more than it pays most hospitals and exempts them from financial pressure to operate efficiently and requirements to reveal how their patients fare. Nearly one in four hospitals qualifies for the program. Despite these benefits, there's new evidence that the quality of many of these hospitals may be deteriorating.
Chicago health information technology company EMRapproved recently announced a partnership with a new collaboration called HealthITxChange, an online community where healthcare practitioners and health IT professionals can share best practices and lessons learned, or "pearls" on EHR adoption.
Dubbing it "the next great American project," President Barack Obama announced the launch of the BRAIN Initiative, aimed at unlocking the many mysteries of the brain. The $100 million "to get the project off the ground" comes from the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation, and is part of the budget the president will send to Congress next week.
Dan Diamond ran a triage unit in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, and was in-country immediately after the earthquake struck Haiti. The difference between available mobile technologies for each disaster was like night and day, but there are still some apps and tools he said would be really helpful.
Making good on its promise, Health Level Seven International's primary standards and other intellectual property are now available to license at no cost. The decision represents HL7's commitment to the betterment of healthcare worldwide by ensuring that all stakeholders have equal access to its HIT standards, officials said.
A newly proposed bill garnering the support of several medical associations would establish exemptions and amend certain penalties for Medicare providers struggling to attest to meaningful use.
Much like learning how to ride a bike, the early experience with electronic health records involves falls and scrapes. And as the industry turns its focus toward more usable EHRs, we should look beyond just making health IT systems simpler.