Health IT News

• Week of 30 Jan 2012 Creating a HIPAA-compliant backup in the cloud (02 Feb 2012)

  For HIPAA covered entities and, increasingly, business associates, cloud services offer a feasible option for meeting backup and disaster recovery compliance requirements.

• Fog surrounding health care cloud economics begins to clear (01 Feb 2012)

  Health care's reluctance to embrace cloud computing is waning, in part because it helps meet HIPAA disaster recovery rules, but cost and bandwidth make it a poor fit for some.

• Week of 09 Jan 2012 Network security services could provide value in health care (15 Jan 2012)

  Network security is critical in today's health care environment, where sensitive patient data flows among many systems and devices. Security service providers could help.

• Web traffic monitoring aids legal EHR, HIPAA compliance, productivity (15 Jan 2012)

  A recent Facebook data breach underscores a need for Web traffic monitoring in health care IT's expanding role of enabling HIPAA compliance. Here one provider offers some advice.

• Week of 02 Jan 2012 Don't delay transition to ICD-10, experts warn (06 Jan 2012)

  Even if training doctors is hard, coding has been outsourced and the C-suite remains unconvinced, health care organizations should not delay their ICD-10 preparations any longer.

• HIPAA 5010 goes online: CIO's troubleshooting list (04 Jan 2012)

  Health care CIOs played an integral part in HIPAA 5010 implementation. Now that it's online, they're helping finance monitor transactions and keep revenue streaming in.

• Three trends that will stimulate health IT innovation in 2012 (03 Jan 2012)

  The federal government is opening up its health data and its purse to stimulate health IT innovation.

• Week of 26 Dec 2011 Five health IT trends not to watch in 2012 (29 Dec 2011)

  Not all health IT trends will survive in 2012. Read about the EMR, the RHIO, the HIS and other health information technology doomed for extinction in the new year.

• Health care informatics, privacy remain top 2012 issues (28 Dec 2011)

  Health IT will stay in the spotlight in 2012. Health care informatics, privacy concerns remain among the industry's top issues, PricewaterhouseCoopers says.

• Just the HITs: Top 10 health IT trends of 2011 (27 Dec 2011)

  Which is the most important health IT story of 2011? There's no shortage of topics. Find out what our features writer thinks after a year of gumshoe reporting.

• Week of 12 Dec 2011 Health app challenge events offer innovation, exposure (18 Dec 2011)

  Crowdsourcing has hit health application development, and it has proven to be popular, with participants thinking outside the box and often receiving recognition for their efforts.

• Physician assistants look to expand EHR incentive eligibility (15 Dec 2011)

  Despite their insight on clinical workflow, EHR use and implementation, physician assistants are on the outside looking in for the EHR incentive programs. Some want to change that.

• Radiologists: Meaningful use payments only part of EHR motivation (13 Dec 2011)

  Meaningful use stage 2 requirements for radiologists are unclear, and vendor support is tepid, but RSNA 2011 shows the specialty optimistic about the benefits of EHR and RIS use.

• Week of 05 Dec 2011 At RSNA, radiologists explore role in HIE initiatives (06 Dec 2011)

  As information exchange plays a greater role in health care, radiologists are discovering they don't operate in a health IT vacuum. Image sharing can mean more efficient care.

• ONC targets patient engagement at mHealth Summit town hall (07 Dec 2011)

  The Office of the National Coordinator has lofty goals for getting patients more involved in their own care. However, each goal brings numerous technical and cultural challenges.

• Week of 28 Nov 2011 Distributed computing environment complicates radiology QA (30 Nov 2011)

  Demands for patient throughput, remote readings of radiology digital images make quality-assurance thorny. IT leaders can assist radiologists in building better processes.

• Expert sees benefits of using Siri for patient education (30 Nov 2011)

  A radiology professor and Siri early adopter sees the voice-activated personal assistant as a way to find information fast -- and to give quadriplegic patients peace of mind.

• Lax security means health data breaches will only get worse (01 Dec 2011)

  As long as data security remains a low priority in the health care industry, breaches will only continue, and get bigger, research from the Ponemon Institute and ID Experts says.

• New Photoshop image deblurring feature could change radiology (30 Nov 2011)

  More radiologists could become Adobe Photoshop experts if its 'unblur' feature proves practical for medical image editing, one RSNA speaker posits. Rescanning costs should drop.

• Radiologists highlight adverse events disclosure at RSNA 2011 (29 Nov 2011)

  As RSNA 2011 broadens its focus to see how specialists integrate with fellow health care providers, radiologists take on a greater role in adverse events disclosures.

• Week of 21 Nov 2011 Compliance, health IT adoption hot topics at ONC meeting (23 Nov 2011)

  The ONC annual meeting shined a spotlight on cutting-edge health IT implementation strategies. Meanwhile, the OCR head discussed HIPAA compliance regulations and IT risk analyses.

• Health care moving toward cloud storage services cautiously (22 Nov 2011)

  Providers are kicking the tires on cloud storage, which offers the potential to lighten ever-growing storage loads, while asking key questions about security and performance.

• Week of 14 Nov 2011 AMA opposes implementing ICD-10; industry leaders react (18 Nov 2011)

  The American Medical Association opposes ICD-10 and aims to seek an 'appropriate replacement,' but those who have invested millions in the switch say they won't change their plans.

• Easing ICD-10 adoption with coding, transcription systems (17 Nov 2011)

  Transcription helps physicians improve documentation, while computer-assisted coding helps billing get the right ICD-10 code. That chain reaction could make ICD-10 easier to bear.

• Financial impact of ICD-10 transition hard to ignore (17 Nov 2011)

  Even with the best laid plans, the ICD-10 transition may be rough for providers. To minimize the financial impact in the months after October 2013, place pressure on payers.

• IOM report poised to shape EHR safety regulation (14 Nov 2011)

  EHR safety will likely get new scrutiny in the wake of an Institute of Medicine report. It remains to be seen if the FDA, ONC, TJC or some other entity will do the watchdog work.

• Preparation for ICD-10 codes varies tremendously among providers (14 Nov 2011)

  As the ICD-10 transition deadline approaches, providers face many hurdles. Some are more prepared than others. This five-part series examines what must be done, why and how.

• To gauge vendor's ICD-10 readiness, turn to its partners (14 Nov 2011)

  When hospitals ask vendors if they are ready for ICD-10, they need to know if the vendors' partners are ready. After all, each software application has its own ICD-10 challenges.

• Week of 07 Nov 2011 WAN optimization improves throughput for medical images (10 Nov 2011)

  High-resolution images can tax any network. The problem is multiplied when bandwidth is scarce. That's why a rural Mississippi medical imaging firm turned to WAN optimization.

• Week of 31 Oct 2011 Lessons learned on the way to getting meaningful use payments (02 Nov 2011)

  Good governance, project management and workflow analysis will help hospitals meet meaningful use today. Tomorrow, though, the focus will shift to health information exchange.

• Week of 24 Oct 2011 AHIMA members make case for hospital chief knowledge officer position (24 Oct 2011)

  With ACO initiatives, more complex EHR systems and stronger patient privacy regulations all looming, it's time to give the knowledge officer a seat at the C-suite table.

• Maine HIE sets national example for patient, provider participation (27 Oct 2011)

  As U.S. states struggle to build health information exchange, Maine's got a federal-funding jump start. Its leader shared trials and tribulations at the AHIMA 2011 meeting.

Health IT News Archive