The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today issued for public comment draft 2 of the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA) that will support the full, network-to-network exchange of health information nationally. HHS also released a notice of funding opportunity to engage a non-profit, industry-based organization that will advance nationwide interoperability.Public Comment DetailsSpecifically, the documents being released for comment are: (1) a second draft of
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Public Health
We Need Less Focus on Perfecting Physicians Using Carrots and Sticks
I’m not sure what the relevant analogy might be, but I’ll take a shot, nonetheless.
Let’s say we poured billions of dollars into improving highways and city streets, but the local commute for residents continued to get longer, more frustrating, less effective.
Or, maybe we also dumped billions into school systems, but student test scores only got worse.
I ask if these comparisons are relevant after reading about a recent study published in the Lancet, which suggests that poor
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Atrium Health, Wake Forest Baptist Health and Wake Forest University Announce Mega-Merger: 5 Things to Know
Atrium Health, Wake Forest Baptist Health and Wake Forest University today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to merge that will establish a next-generation academic healthcare system. If approved, the mega-merger will enable three leading healthcare organizations to invest in the health and well-being of people throughout the region, as well as contribute ground-breaking research and innovation to the world. The organizations have agreed to start a period of exclusive
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IBM Watson Health Invests $50M in AI to Tackle Public Health Issues
IBM Watson Health announced plans to make a 10-year, $50 million investment in joint research collaborations to advance the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to tackle public health issues. Brigham and Women’s Hospital – the teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School – and Vanderbilt University Medical Center have been selected as joint research partners. AI Research Focus AreasThe initial areas of study are expected to include the use of AI to improve the utility of electronic health records
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Utilizing Blockchain in Healthcare: 3 Lessons Learned from Abroad
According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, America is suffering from a serious trust issue, and one of the areas which Americans seem to have the least faith in is their healthcare system. According to a recent New York Times article, in 1966, more than three-fourths of Americans had great confidence in medical practitioners, compared to as little as 34 percent today.Many argue that the US healthcare system is deeply flawed and is designed to benefit medical providers and insurance carriers
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Want to Improve Public Health Outcomes? Start with Housing
A well-worn axiom says that “hope is not a plan.” Indeed, hope alone is such a hands-up abdication of planning that editor Thomas Mowle was inspired to use the phrase as the title of his 2007 book of essays on the war in Iraq, which says something.Still, if we play with syntax and add a few words, we can say that every successful plan should offer a measure of hope—hope for success, an improved reality, greater opportunity.With the twin American scourges of homelessness and addiction, hope
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Why The Opioid Epidemic Makes EHRs Essential To Public Health
When public health is threatened by an outbreak of SARS or Zika or avian influenza, widely disseminated information becomes a crucial tool used to curtail the spread of disease.But transmittable diseases are not the lone threats to public health. Other metaphorically pathogenic events—the current opioid epidemic, for example—are more effectively managed by making sure doctors have complete information when evaluating patients and, especially, writing prescriptions.Even if you know what the
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How Predictive Analytics Can Combat the Zika Virus
Editor's Note: Damian Mingle is a data scientist with Nashville-based health analytics firm WPC Healthcare and has significant experience mapping the West Nile virus for communities struggling to contain the mosquito population that carries it.
The World Health organization recently declared a public health emergency in connection with the Zika virus outbreak. No locally transmitted Zika virus cases have been reported in the continental United States, though a recently diagnosed Virginia
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20 Promising Canadian Digital Health Companies to Watch
“A company’s odds of success are better the closer they can get to their market,” argues Stephen Hurwitz, a thought leader in the Canadian venture capital industry, recognizing that the proximity to a VC-tech hub can help the success rate of Canadian startups.
A socialized healthcare system, Canada’s market is fragmented by province and type of care – most primary and emergency care is free for residents whereas specialty care, prescription drugs, long-term and in-home care amongst others,
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MU Stage 3 Proposed Rule: 5 Toughest Measures for Physicians
61 percent of physicians feel the federal government has not done a fair job with the MU stage 3 proposed rule, according to a recent survey conducted by QuantiaMD and exclusively designed by Healthcare Informatics editors. For the survey, QuantiaMD, a Waltham, Mass.-based social network for physicians asked physicians in its network about proposed Meaningful Use Stage 3 rules to support the path to nationwide interoperability.
In response to an open answered question on what
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