Technology

Smart watches, mHealth apps, and Bluetooth scales may just be edging into the social consciousness as a viable way to monitor personal health and manage chronic diseases, but EHR developers have been eyeing these technologies for some time, seeing them as valuable tools in the struggle to engage patients, prevent unnecessary readmissions, reduce costs, and promote long-term health.

Despite reform and shifts in health policy, the United States healthcare system ranked last in quality compared with 10 other industrialized counties-just as it did in 2010, 2007, 2006, and 2004.

The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) outlined a 10-year plan that will strengthen the nation's health IT infrastructure by 2024. This interoperable system would promote a "continuous learning" environment that would enforce higher-quality data standards, improve population health, better engage patients, and lower care delivery costs.

Some 59 percent have received meaningful use Stage 1 incentives.

Personal health information may be key to reducing the costs of care. To work most efficiently, patient participation and compliance will be necessary.

Health insurance exchanges continue to be a work in progress, at least for several states that are facing ongoing challenges. In particular, 5 states-Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, and Oregon-estimate that it will cost $240 million to fix their existing exchanges, or to transition to using the federal exchange.

Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) have increased their EHR adoption by 133% over the past four years, says a report from The Commonwealth Fund, with 93% of FQHCs in possession of an EHR and 85% of these community provider organizations reporting advanced HIT capabilities.

A CMS proposal could extend the deadline for providers to transition to Stage 2 meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs). Agency officials said they have received extensive feedback from health providers who felt they did not have enough time to efficiently transition their EHR systems.

We describe the conceptual underpinnings of an EHR-related selfassessment strategy to provide institutions a foundation upon which they can build their safety efforts.

The CMS has canceled its first scheduled round of end-to-end testing for ICD-10 in the wake of a recent, one-year reset of the compliance deadline to Oct. 1, 2015, according to knowledgeable sources.

Only 50 physicians and 4 hospitals that enrolled in the federal electronic health record (EHR) incentive payment program have reported achieving Stage 2 meaningful use of EHRs. Officials from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said that due to these low numbers, many participating practitioners who did not achieve Stage 2 risk having their Medicare reimbursement payments lowered at the end of 2014.

OncologyCloud, a platform developed by Flatiron Health, is already in partnership with more than 25 cancer centers to help address some of the bottlenecks in cancer care.

Experts from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) found that big data tools can play an important role in personalizing healthcare delivery methods. Transforming care delivery models is an essential component of health reform because tailored, value-based care will lower costs and improve quality of care.

The Federation of State Medical Boards approved a model telehealth policy this weekend that's made some providers of these services happy and others, well, not so much, because of its emphasis on using video rather than audio technology for a first patient visit.

Most people want to take medications as prescribed, even if they sometimes need a little help remembering. For them, an automated system that monitors drug taking and provides feedback after the fact may be more useful than one that nags people when it is time to take a pill, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University say.

Farzad Mostashari, MD, visiting fellow, Brookings Institution, former national coordinator for health information technology (HIT), US Department of Health and Human Services, says interoperability is the concept of being able to securely exchange health information, and then appropriately understand and use it.

With the delay in ICD-10, many insurers now have to slow down a mammoth IT project and, potentially more disruptive, make adjustments to a whole slew of programs and contracts.

Look beyond the EHR incentive program. A national effort to turn CMS's recent release of Medicare physician payment data into useful, actionable data visualizations is the hottest HIT challenge right now.

Healthcare experts have officially begun a long-awaited dive into newly released data showing how much doctors charge and receive for treating Medicare patients.

EHRs - and the data they hold - are critical to succeed in population health, but they're not enough.

Karen DeSalvo, MD, the national coordinator for health information technology has proposed that ONC become more forward-thinking.

Supporters point to advances such as greater takeup of EHRs by doctors, though critics say federal policymakers pushed technology long before it was ready.

The Safety Assurance Factors for Electronic Health Record (EHR) Resilience, or SAFER guidelines, could assist healthcare providers as they integrate technology into their everyday practices.

Big data, electronic health records, online health insurance portals-countless technology innovations are emerging, but how important are they for health leaders to adopt? According to analysts at Forrester Research, a global research and advisory firm, it's not only extremely imperative, but a matter of organizational survival.

As the quality and cost transparency movements gain support within the healthcare industry, a more important question persists: what will actually work for consumers?

Health information technology (HIT) system advancements, including medical device improvements, could account for more than $30 billion per year in savings.

With less than a week remaining to sign up for private health insurance under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, more than half of the uninsured don't know that March 31 is the deadline.

If mobile medical devices had greater interoperability, which means they could better communicate with each other, the nation could avoid more than $30 billion a year in wasteful healthcare spending.

Providers seeking to treat patients using telemedicine will be required to deliver the same standard of care as they would if they were treating them in person, at least according to a proposal from The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB). In fact, these new telemedicine policy guidelines intend to solidify patients' welfare.

The Federation of State Medical Boards will vote next month on a new telemedicine policy that codifies that medical care takes place where a patient, not a provider, is located.