Technology

A study of the use of patient portals among older Americans found clear disparities in the registration and use of this technology. The results were published in the Journal of the Americans Medical Informatics Association.

Enlisting electronic health record (EHR) super users to provide support to employees is not enough to foster EHR implementation success-super users' behaviors can be an important influence, researchers from Yale University found.

Remote monitoring for heart failure patients resulted in fewer hospitalizations and deaths than a similar group of patients receiving usual care during a 4-month study, but the benefits didn't last beyond the study period.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office found that CMS could use electronically readable cards in Medicare for a number of different purposes.

Telephone nursing advice for home care offers an effective and clinically appropriate way to manage upper respiratory infection symptoms for adult members of a large integrated health plan.

The FDA is offering a grant of up to $1 million to turn large amounts of electronic health record data into usable figures highlighting postmarket risks of various drugs.

Smartphone data is now being used for crowdsourcing studies of diabetes, asthma, cardiovascular disease.

Hospitals like Boston Children's and Penn Medicine think they are better off building in-house apps that are custom-made for their workflow, rather than risk buying those available in the market, which may not necessarily be a perfect fit.

The study, conducted by Elissa Ozanne, PhD, at Dartmouth found that 11 of the 15 women, aged 45-79 years, interviewed before and after using the mHealth tool preferred it to a paper tool and found it easy to use.

Healthcare organizations and providers are still largely confused, or at least slow, when it comes to effective patient portals and other technologies that may help spur better patient engagement.

Data breaches in the healthcare industry happen more often than you might think. Financial institutions, retailers, and other organizations have all suffered major breaches, but the healthcare sector is an increasingly attractive target for hackers.

Anthem has a history of big security breaches. In 2010 an attack that disclosed information of more than 600,000 people cost the company $1.7 million in fines from HHS.

Health information technology (IT) can create greater healthcare disparities if all patient groups and their concerns aren't considered properly, panelists said on the first day of the annual meeting of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.

Determining the impact of health information technology adoption and hospital-physician integration on hospital efficiency.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has released the first draft of its interoperability roadmap to deliver better care through the exchange and use of health information technology.

Karen B. DeSalvo, MD, MPH, MSc, announced the appointment of a new chief medical officer at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology in a note to staff.

After calls for changes and more flexibility from physician groups, CMS announced it intends to modify requirements to meet meaningful use in the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Programs.

Lessons learned about data governance and distribution from a voluntary healthcare claims repository, the Health Care Cost Institute, a nonprofit research organization

While the Health IT Policy Committee's Consumer Work Group praised efforts to update the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan, the group's members say the framework does not go far enough when it comes to consumers.

An American Medical Association-led coalition of 35 medical societies has urged the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology to reevaluate the current electronic health record certification process.

Analysis of State Health Innovation Plans, funded by CMS, shows a variety of emerging approaches to healthcare reform. Accenture has identified the top 5 projected investment areas.

A major technical partner is announced for the long-awaited HIT initiative that will give oncologists a data-derived "second opinion" right from their desktops, with the earliest versions scheduled to come online this year.

Although more than 70% of physicians use electronic health records, up to half don't routinely receive the patient information needed to coordinate care effectively.

Patients increasingly are looking for healthcare providers that offer digital services, but many still fail to do so.

The US patient monitoring market is projected to grow over $5 billion by 2020 driven by the demand for customized healthcare solutions, increased chronic illness amongst the aging population, and strained healthcare budgets.

Improved and standardized reporting across healthcare organizations is needed to better understand the impact of health information technology (IT) on adverse events, according to a report from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT.

Blackberry announced the product of their collaboration with NantHealth: a healthcare app for doctors and nurses who use their smartphones.

Substituting telehealth services for in-person visits can generate savings of roughly $126 per commercial telehealth visit, according to a new actuarial study from the Alliance for Connected Care.

Representatives from approximately 20 health information exchanges nationally have come together to form a national consortium called the Strategic Health Information Exchange Collaborative.