Dr. Donald Voltz discusses how infectious diseases such as Ebola, enterovirus D68, and flu is pushing EHRs into the job of a central communications hub.
The recent spate of infectious diseases identified in the US-whether Ebola, enterovirus D68 or just the beginning of the plain old flu season, healthcare has become increasing complex. It involves more players in terms of patients, providers, administration, insurance , governmental bodies and now CDC screeners at airports. This leaves
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Health IT | News, Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
5 Must-Track Metrics for Physician Practice Profitability
The late, legendary management expert Peter Drucker once famously said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”
In today’s challenging and rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, measurement is more important than ever. However, it can be easy to fall prey to “data for the sake of data” and lose the most meaningful metrics in a sea of statistics. When it comes to revenue cycle management— all of the activities that happen before, during and after a patient’s visit that affect a
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ONC Unveils Early Strategic Elements of Interoperability Roadmap
On Wednesday, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) held the first joint meeting of the Health Information Technology Policy and Standards Committees to discuss future of interoperability in healthcare. During the meeting, the ONC presented some of the early strategic elements of the draft interoperability roadmap proposing key near-term actions and milestones for many of the 3, 6, and 10 year goals. The elements are structured around five critical
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The Critical Role of Health IT in the Ebola Outbreak
A recent article by Atul Gawande in The New Yorker describes the level of preparedness at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, as it encountered the first case of Ebola to be diagnosed in the U.S. The emergency department was as prepared as anyplace, and had rehearsed the scenarios, and reviewed the CDC checklist for Ebola preparedness. They had asked about fever in people who had traveled from the region of West Africa beset by Ebola, per the protocol. In fact, the triage nurse in the
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AMA Reveals Blueprint for Future of Meaningful Use Program
On Tuesday, the American Medical Association (AMA) released a blueprint for the future of the Meaningful Use program, including Stage 3, quality reporting, and EHR vendor certification requirements. In a 30 page letter submitted to the CMS Administrator Marilyn B. Tavenner and ONC National Coordinator Karen B. DeSalvo, MD, MPH,AMA CEO James L. Madara, MD states:
"Since the creation of the Electronic Health Record (EHR) Meaningful Use (MU) program in 2009, it is clear that physician use
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Health IT VC Funding Tops $956M in Q3 2014
Health IT VC funding reached $956 million in 212 deals in Q3 2014,a decline of 46 percent in terms of dollars compared to the massive $1.8 billion in 161 deals raised in Q2 2014, according to a new Mercom Capital Group report. However, Q3 2014 was still the second highest quarter for VC funding since 2010. Total VC funding year-to-date adds up to $3.6 billion.
Consumer-focused technologies received 65 percent of all VC investments in the third quarter of 2014, with $623 million
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EMR Optimization: 96% of Healthcare Providers Infrastructure Not Fully Ready
When it comes to EMR optimization, healthcare providers lack the infrastructure to take advantage of FutureCare-enabling technologies (cloud, Big Data, mobile, and social).
96 percent of healthcare organizations say their infrastructure is not fully prepared for the evolution of their EMR today, according to a new study from EMC and MeriTalk. The report explores how FutureCare-enabling technologies (cloud, Big Data, mobile, and social) are driving profound change and how deployment of these
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Shareable Ink Expands Partnership with Allscripts
Anesthesia information management system (AIMS) provider, Shareable Ink, today announced a preferred partnership agreement with Allscripts, for its Allscripts Sunrise business unit. Shareable Ink provides a full AIMS documentation solution supporting pre-op, intra-op, and post-op, and capturing key quality measures that are critical to outcomes reporting. Shareable Ink will also extend the Allscripts Sunrise platform with additional point-of-care clinical documentation solutions using Allscripts
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Accenture, Salesforce Rolls Out Connected Physician Solution
During Dreamforce 14, Accenture and Salesforce announced the launch of the Accenture Connected Physician Solution to help life sciences companies improve customer and patient engagement leveraging cloud, social and mobile technologies. The solution offers physicians an efficient way to access disease, treatment and product information. It provides doctors with training and gives them the opportunity to collaborate in real time with fellow doctors and medically trained pharmaceutical experts.
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mHealth: The Most Underutilized Force in Patient Engagement?
When was the last time you touched your cell phone? Did you just look at it sitting next to you or feel for it in your pocket? Maybe you're already reading this article right now on your phone.
The latest craze over the release of the iPhone 6 has just proven again how much people love their phones. Hundreds of people waited in lines for hours or even slept overnight trying to be one of the first to get their hands on Apple's latest design. More than 10 million phones were sold over the debut
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