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HIMSS

Doctors Love iPads. What Does it Mean? What Does it Mean?

After attending the largest annual health IT conference of the year — HIMSS 11 –  John Moore reported that “nearly every EHR vendor has an iPad App for the EHR [electronic health record], or will be releasing such this year.”

Doctors love iPads…not surprising? But, how might you explain this?

There are at least two different possibilities:

Coincidence Theory
Conspiracy Theory

The Coincidence Theory

So doctors want to access EHR software through the iPad…what’s the big deal?

Apple has built a great new hardware platform with the iPad. […]

Getting DIRECTly to the Point: The Role of the Direct Project in Fast-Tracking Health IT Interoperability

By Rich Elmore and Arien Malec. Rich Elmore is the Direct Project Communication Workgroup leader and Vice President, Strategic Initiatives at Allscripts.  Arien Malec is ONC’s Coordinator, Direct Project and Coordinator, S&I Framework.

A patient’s health records are no longer confined to a doctor’s office, shelved inside a dusty file cabinet. With the advent of the Nationwide Health Information Network, a framework of standards, services and policies that allow health practitioners to securely exchange health data, medical records digitized to be easily […]

Comments to ONC: PCAST HIT Report Becomes a Political Piñata

The PCAST Report on Health IT has become a political piñata. 

Early Feedback on PCAST 

Like many of my colleagues, I was taken aback by the release of the Report in early December 2010 — I didn’t know quite what to make of it. Response in the first week of release was: 

Limited. The first commentaries were primarily by technical and/or clinical bloggers. The mainstream HIT world had remarkably little initial reaction to the Report. 
Respectful of the imprimatur of “The President’s” Report and noting some of the big names associated with the […]

Summarizing Early PCAST HIT Critiques: “Brilliant, but they didn’t do all their technical homework.”

Last week PCAST (The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology) issued a major report — “Realizing the Full Potential of Health Information Technology to Improve Healthcare for Americans: The Path Forward”. 

The reviews are filtering in and I’m seeing two major themes: 

The vision is on target:  “extraordinary”, “breathtakingly innovative”.
These guys didn’t do all their technical homework. The range varies, but the message is consistent. 

Here are some early critiques of the PCAST report. Let the debate continue!

Digital Medical Office of the Future Conference. Las Vegas, Sept. 9-10

CLICK HERE FOR THE CONFERENCE WEBSITE

Healthcare providers face critical choices in selecting and implementing Electronic Health Records (EHRs). In addition, physicians and hospitals will need to develop the capacity to exchange clinical information in order to meet Meaningful Use requirements. This program will offer detailed and practical information on EHR selection and implementation, as well as strategies for creating a sustainable health information exchange (HIE). The program also features sessions on legal/regulatory issues, clinical platforms and applications as […]

Is HITECH Working? #6: HITECH and Health Reform Objectives are Synergistic

by Vince Kuraitis JD, MBA and David C. Kibbe MD, MBA

.

….or to be more specific, HITECH is synergistic with payment reform that could come from the recently passed national health care reform legislation — the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

We’ll keep this post fairly short and try to avoid many of the more divisive aspects of this topic. The need for healthcare payment reform is well understood on both sides of the aisle:

Realizing the full potential of health IT depends in […]

Is HITECH Working? #4: While most attention has been focused on demand side incentives (will doctors and hospitals buy EHRs?), the supply (vendor) side of HIT is already transforming.

by Vince Kuraitis JD, MBA and David C. Kibbe MD, MBA

Most of the press coverage and attention to HITECH has been to the “buy” side of the market:  The central question here has been: “Will doctors and hospitals buy and use EHR technology?”

Meanwhile — and much more quietly — the sell (vendor) side of the EHR market is already dramatically different than it was a year ago. We observe change occurring at at least three levels:

HITECH […]

Is HITECH Working? #1: Hospitals are grumbling but are playing in the game; success is not guaranteed.

by Vince Kuraitis JD, MBA and David C. Kibbe MD, MBA 

The rationale for hospitals having to play in the HITECH game is straightforward: the financial carrots through 2015 are helpful, and the financial sticks after 2015 will be very painful.

We’ll discuss:

Financial Impacts on Hospitals
Survey Data Showing Hospitals Will Play
Why Success is Not Guaranteed

Financial Impacts on Hospitals

Even prior to HITECH, most hospital executives already had passed the threshold decision and concluded that they need to implement EHR technology. Thus, the issue for most […]

A Compendium of Perspectives on the HITECH Certification NPRM

Just the Facts 

Certification Programs NPRM (Notice of Proposed Rulemaking)

Health IT, U. S. Department of Health and Human Services; March 2, 2010

Certification NPRM

Facts-At-A-Glance

FAQ

 

Bookmarked version of Certification NPRM (much easier to navigate)

U. S. Department of Health and Human Services; March 2, 2010

HIMSS Commentary: Is HITECH Promoting Innovation?

There’s a great discussion going on on The Healthcare IT Guy’s blog:  Innovation in healthcare IT is dead (hopefully only temporarily). Read BOTH the essay by Shahid Shah and the comments.