What You Should Know:
- In a significant move for the "tele-prescribing" landscape, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) have announced a fourth temporary extension of telemedicine flexibilities.
- This extension allows practitioners to prescribe controlled medications—including Schedule II–V drugs—via audio-video encounters without a prior in-person medical evaluation through December 31, 2026.
A Transitional
Read More
Health IT | News, Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
From Reactive to Proactive: Mastering 2026 Medical Device Fleet Management
In today’s healthcare environment, hospitals typically have 10 to 15 connected medical devices per bed, meaning clinical engineering teams are often responsible for managing thousands of medical assets at each site., This number is only expected to rise. In a high-stakes environment of healthcare, every piece of equipment plays a critical role in patient outcomes.
As hospitals continue to adopt more advanced technology and software, clinical engineers face growing
Read More
Closing the Referral Management Gap in 2026: Why Every Referral Deserves Swift Follow-Through
In healthcare today, one of the quietest yet most damaging leak points lies between the referral and the actual appointment. It’s easy to think of referral processing as a back-office task. But in organizations where demand is high, patient expectations are rising, and competition is fierce, a slow or clumsy referral process becomes a strategic liability.
I’ve seen firsthand how systems built for payments and patient engagement reveal one truth: every delay is a missed connection — patients
Read More
How Legacy Active Directory Creates Ransomware Risks for Hospitals
In early 2024, the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago faced a catastrophic cyber incident. Between January 26 and 31, attackers infiltrated the network, forcing the shutdown of phones, email, and critical patient systems including the EHR and online portal. Nearly 800,000 individuals were later notified that their personal and medical data had been compromised. While the precise attack vector was not confirmed, the episode illustrates how outdated identity infrastructure,
Read More
What Benefits Leaders Need to Know About Agentic AI in 2026
The healthcare industry is a leader in AI agent adoption at 68%, according to KPMG research, with early implementations reducing administrative workload by 55%. Yet for all this progress, Agentic AI remains widely misunderstood - often conflated with chatbots or treated as the “final answer” to benefits complexity.
In reality, Agentic AI represents a genuine evolutionary step: systems that understand context across multiple platforms, take action in real-time, and guide members through
Read More
The Unbundling of Primary Care: How 2026 Will Decentralize Medicine
As 2026 begins, I’m seeing a clear shift in how care is delivered and how patients expect to participate in it. After years of incremental progress, the industry is finally moving in ways that truly empower patients, lower barriers for innovators, and relieve clinicians from administrative overload. The forces driving this change are unmistakable: AI agents, consumer-first care models, new entrepreneurial pathways, and the decentralization of traditional medical systems. Taken together,
Read More
The New “Pass/Fail” Test: Why Sovereignty, Not Features, Will Decide Global Health IT Contracts in 2026
What You Should Know:
- A new 2026 report from Black Book Market Research reveals a decisive shift in global healthcare procurement: digital sovereignty has replaced functionality as the primary "gatekeeper" for international contracts.
- Roughly 80% of international health buyers now treat data residency and jurisdictional control as pass/fail criteria, often disqualifying vendors before a product demo even occurs. This shift is being accelerated by AI, as ministries demand to
Read More
Beyond Reactivity: Integrating AI-Driven Home Safety for Aging in Place
Aging in America isn’t a niche issue—it’s a seismic shift. Within five years, one in five Americans will be 65 or older. By 2034, older adults will outnumber children for the first time in U.S. history.1 This demographic flip is already reshaping households, businesses, and public policy.
One of the most urgent—and solvable—challenges is housing safety, particularly falls. Nearly 90% of older adults want to remain in their homes as they age.2 Yet, fewer than 10% of U.S. homes are
Read More
Beyond Automation: Why the Future of Surgery Is “Performance-Guided,” Not Autonomous
Lately, I've been reading headlines about full autonomous surgery - claims that gallbladders can be removed without a human hand. It makes me wonder: is the operating room being handed over to machines?
The reality is complex - and more human than you might think.
While automation continues to advance, the true future of surgery lies not in removing the surgeon from the loop, but in equipping them with better tools to navigate it. That’s the principle behind Performance-Guided Surgery™: an
Read More
Ending ‘Pajama Time’: How AI Redeploys Clinicians From Paperwork Back to Patients
Too many of us know the drill. After weeks or months of waiting, you finally land a doctor’s appointment. You sit in the exam room, anxious. When the doctor walks in, you get more eye contact with the laptop than with them. The visit feels rushed, and you leave with more questions than answers.
That scene isn’t about indifference. It’s about time. Clinicians are buried under paperwork. Nearly
Read More
