On Wednesday, the White House nominated National health IT coordinator Dr. Karen DeSalvo to be assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). If confirmed by the Senate, DeSalvo would leave her post as the as the acting assistant secretary for the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology.
In a letter to HHS staff on Wednesday, HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell wrote:
"I am pleased to share the news that earlier today the President
Read More
Health IT | News, Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
Behavioral Health: We Need EHRs, But incentives Would Help
Editor's Note: D'Arcy Gue is one of the co-founders of Phoenix Health Systems, a healthcare IT consulting and outsourcing firm. In April 2015, Phoenix welcomed a merger with Medsphere Systems Corporation and now serves as the vice president of industry relations for Phoenix Health Systems, the health IT services division of Medsphere.
Acute care hospitals have demonstrated what happens when you pay people—when you incentivize them—to do something.
Just 9.4 percent of
Read More
“Failed” Promise of EHRs May Stand in Way of Precision Medicine
On Tuesday, U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said that the “failed promise” of the $28 billion EHR program may stand in the way of a precision medicine initiative until physicians are able to use systems that communicate with one another. The statement was made during the committee’s innovation initiative to examine how we get safe drugs, devices, and treatments from the discovery process through the regulatory process into the medicine cabinets and doctors’ offices more quickly and
Read More
Cleveland Clinic to Publish Its Algorithms to Improve Patient Outcomes
Today, Cleveland Clinic announced it will join other prominent health institutions in publishing their extensive portfolio of algorithms in the Apervita Market, empowering health enterprises everywhere to improve patient outcomes. Utilizing Apervita’s secure self-service health analytics platform, healthcare enterprises can leverage Cleveland Clinic’s robust portfolio of health analytics to improve patient care.
How It Works
Through decades of research, Cleveland Clinic has developed a robust
Read More
Rebooting Meaningful Use: Is It Accomplishing Its Mission?
Editor's Note: Dr. Reid Coleman is the Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO) for evidence-based medicine at Nuance.
Meaningful Use is an important set of criteria designed to improve quality and safety, but is it accomplishing its mission?
The proposed rules for Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 3 were just released by both CMS and the ONC. Many writers have commented on these rules, and this blog post is not a commentary about the rules. As always, I recommend readers go to John
Read More
15 “Vital Signs” for Assessing Population Health Management
Health measurements are requested and required by organizations for various purposes; however, many of the individual measures in use today were developed without attention to the broader context. In some cases, measurements often overlap or are redundant and are implemented for a particular purpose and circumstance.
To resolve this gap, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has outlined 15 “vital signs” or core measures for tracking progress toward improved population health management in the U.S.
Read More
GHX Launches Next-Gen Healthcare Supply Chain Exchange
Today GHX launched the next generation of its flagship trading healthcare supply chain exchange, the GHX Global Exchange. The new platform delivers the most sophisticated e-commerce exchange available in healthcare. GHX redesigned the platform to make improvements in security, scalability, reliability, transparency that will support the industry's growth through 2020 and beyond.
The transition of the GHX Global Exchange from software-as-as-service to a global cloud service is significant for
Read More
Revenue Cycle: 6 Key Strategies for Medical A/R Management
Even though the overall U.S. economy is improving, let’s face it – the healthcare reimbursement system remains brutal. Many medical groups continue to struggle, looking for relief from the mounting pressures on their profitability. Declining reimbursements (60%); rising costs (50%); requirements from the Affordable Care Act (49%); and the transition to ICD-10 (43%) top the list of financial challenges that more than 5,000 physicians reported in the Practice Profitability
Read More
KLAS: Epic, Cerner Rated Highest for Acute Care EMR Usability
Physician leadership at 110 healthcare organizations have rated Epic and Cerner highest for acute care EMR usability over the past two years, according to the latest KLAS report. The latest KLAS report, entitled “Physician Leadership Weighs In on Acute Care EMR Usability,” finds:
- Epic leads the industry in usability performance
- Cerner’s customers are making the most usability progress
- MEDITECH has distinguishes themselves as having "made up the most ground."
KLAS Report
Read More
Imprivata Acquires Biometric Patient ID Provider HT Systems
Boston-based health IT security company Imprivata announced today it has acquired HT Systems, the market leading provider of palm-vein based biometric patient identification systems, to enter into the emerging patient identification market, which Imprivata estimates to be approximately $2.0 billion globally. The acquisition of HT Systems and its PatientSecure® biometric patient identification technology supports Imprivata’s long-term vision to be the leading provider of
Read More
