A recent article in The Commonwealth Fund blog, “Envisioning a Digital Health Advisor,” raises the question of being able to use smartphone apps to get real-time, accurate and personalized guidance for health concerns. While one can envision the convenience, affordability and peace of mind that would result from their use, such services face a number of hurdles before they become reality. As a result, the “digital revolution” has not yet greatly affected most people’s interactions with the
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Health IT | News, Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
MediTouch EHR Integrates with ZocDoc for Seamless Healthcare Experience
HealthFusion, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quality Systems, Inc., announced it has integrated with online scheduling platform ZocDoc to help provider clients of both MediTouch EHR and Zocdoc attract new patients.The integration will also provide patients with a real-time view of MediTouch provider schedules, delivering the convenience they want and ultimately improving the patient experience and access to care, while offering more efficiency to medical practices using both services.“Healthcare
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AMN Healthcare Acquires HIM Services Firm Peak Health Solutions
AMN Healthcare, a healthcare workforce solutions and staffing services company has acquired Health Information Management (HIM) services company Peak Health Solutions. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed and is expected to be immediately accretive to AMN's earnings per share. The acquisition was funded out of cash on hand and borrowings under the Company's existing revolving credit facility. The business will be included in the Company's Other Workforce Solutions segment for
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VA Joins NATE Blue Button for Consumers (NBB4C) Trust Bundle
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has join the NATE Blue Button for Consumers (NBB4C) Trust Bundle, demonstrating its commitment to enabling its Veterans to send their health data to the consumer-facing app (CFA) of their choice.Becoming a member of NATE will allow VA to collaborate on policies and procedures for sharing trusted health information with consumers outside of the VA health system through the use of Direct Messaging and other electronic transport protocols. With the
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Nuance Unveils Mobile Clinical Documentation App for Physicians
“In 2015, 65% of physicians were using desktops for clinical documentation with speech recognition saving them 2.5 hours of documentation for every hour they dictated. To improve on and allow even more flexibility for physicians, Nuance Communications has unveiled Nuance Velocity, a new mobile clinical documentation solution that allows physicians in ambulatory care settings to choose which type of documentation method they want to use (speech recognition, dictation or templates) and even shift
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ePatientFinder Lands $8.2M for Clinical Trail Exchange Platform
ePatientFinder, an Austin-based digital health startup that uses algorithms to match physicians with potentially life-changing clinical trials for their patients, based on their existing EHR data has raised $8.2 million Series B funding. The latest round led by a technology investor syndicate has increased the company's total funding to $11M. ePatientFinder plans to use the capital from this latest funding round to fuel the growth of its Clinical Trail Exchange and provider referral
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DirectTrust Urges ONC to Expand Interoperability Measures Under MACRA
Calling the measurement of interoperability a difficult area of study, DirectTrust has filed comments applauding the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology’s (ONC) initiative to develop metrics for electronic health information exchange and interoperability. At the same time, DirectTrust is urging ONC to begin the development of metrics in a “simple” manner, recognizing that further research will be needed as the interoperable exchange of health information among
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Cisco Selects EHR Integration API Redox to Join Entrepreneurs in Residence Program
Redox, a health IT startup founded by former Epic engineers helping developers integrate with EHRs and health systems manage their connections to the cloud has been selected to join the Cisco Entrepreneurs in Residence (Cisco EIR) program in Silicon Valley. The company's mission is to solve the EHR interoperability problem with their RESTful API designed to help apps share data with almost any EHR vendor at any health system.The corporate venturing program allows emerging tech companies to tap
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5 Best Practices for Leveraging Analytics in Population Health
McKesson’s Dr. Michael Blackman explains why actionable insights begin with strategic data management.For healthcare providers, value-based care isn’t just an operational incentive anymore, it’s now an imperative for basic survival. As a result, many executives now consider it vitally important to redesign health system services for population health, according a recent Advisory Board Company Survey.In fact, 52 percent of those surveyed were concerned about population health, making it the
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Is The Health IT Gap Driving Medical Errors into the 3rd Leading Cause of Death?
Hardly a day goes by without some new revelation of a US IT mess that seems like an endless round of the old radio show joke contest, “Can You Top This”, except increasingly the joke is on us. From nuclear weapons updated with floppy disks to needless medical deaths, many of which are still caused by preventable interoperability communication errors as has been the case for decades.According to a report released to Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that the US
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