American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)

See the following -

The ONC Reorganization

Many people have asked me to explain the recent reorganization at ONC, reducing 17 different offices to 10...Simply, the era of stimulus has ended and ONC no longer has the operating budget to do as many projects as fast as during the era of ARRA... Read More »

The State of Health IT in America: Thinking About the Bipartisan Policy Center Report on Health IT

Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | Health Populi | February 2, 2012

Just how solid is political support for health IT these days, then? An important report, Transforming Health Care: The Role of Health IT, from the Bipartisan Policy Center Task Force on Delivery System Reform and Health IT published in January 2012, talks about the gaps and obstacles to achieving an interoperable, accessible health IT infrastructure.

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The Unhealthy Side Effects of Meaningful Use

Michael Koriwchak | Wired EMR Practice | July 13, 2012

There are also no established EMR implementation strategies for medical practices.  Implementing a complex EMR system into a busy medical practice is like replacing an aircraft’s engines while it is still flying.  During implementation there can be no reduction in patient volume and no errors in patient care.  Information technology is the only medical technology that has been given a “free pass,” with apparently no need to prove itself the way we prove the worthiness of new drugs, medical devices and surgical procedures.
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Time to Extend my Extension Idea

Joseph Conn | ModernHealthcare.com | April 6, 2012

You should put together the success story of the health IT extension program and take it to Congress. Tell its members the country needs this program and should fund it going forward. Read More »

VA Official: Meaningful-Use Push For VistA EHR Will Benefit Patients

Joseph Conn | ModernHealthcare.com | October 25, 2012

The U.S. Veterans Affairs Department will lend more than moral support to a federal effort to boost the meaningful use of health information technology by submitting its venerable VistA electronic health-record system for testing and certification for use in the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive payment programs. Read More »

Valley General Hospital Goes Live on OpenVista Electronic Health Record

Press Release | Medsphere Systems Corporation, Valley General Hospital (VGH) | October 23, 2014

Medsphere Systems Corporation and Valley General Hospital (VGH) today announced that VGH is up and running on Medsphere’s OpenVista® electronic health record (EHR). The Snohomish County community hospital, located northeast of Seattle, now looks forward to Meaningful Use 2014 certification later this year and federal reimbursement early next year. Both Medsphere and VGH estimate that federal Meaningful Use funds will cover most if not all of the initial five-year subscription costs for OpenVista. Read More »

Valley General Hospital Selects OpenVista Electronic Health Record

Press Release | Medsphere Systems Corporation | May 5, 2014

Northwest community-based hospital cites affordability, interoperability, proven track record in choosing Medsphere’s open EHR solution Read More »

Would Romney Kill Meaningful Use?

Erin McCann | Government Health IT | October 29, 2012

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney is no stranger to health information technology advocacy. As governor of Massachusetts, he helped spur initiatives such as the $50 million nonprofit Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, for instance, and he signed a 2003 bill meant to enable Bay State providers to more widely adopt e-prescribing. Read More »

Is Digitizing Healthcare Making It Less Safe?

Event Details
Type: 
Seminar/Webinar
Date: 
July 1, 2014 - 2:00pm - 3:00pm

Join InformationWeek Radio on Tuesday, July 1, at 2:00 PM EST for a discussion with Scot M. Silverstein, M.D., a consultant and professor in the Drexel University informatics program who is a leading critic of the claims made for EHR systems and researches the pitfalls of the software and the way it is implemented. He blogs at Health Care Renewal as InformaticsMD. One of the issues he highlights is that there is no systemattic tracking of medical errors associated with functionality or usability issues of EHRs, making it hard to judge whether their net effect has been positive or negative. Yet there are troubling signs, in everything from academic studies to malpractice claims, that the risks of EHRs have been underestimated and the rush to implement these systems may be misguided. Read More »