Bernie Monegain

The Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients (CRISP) has gone live with data exchange statewide. CRISP officials call it a "major step" toward the delivery of critical health information to the right place at the right time.

In its first report on specialty ambulatory electronic medical record systems, research firm KLAS digs into vendor performance by practice specialty.

There can be no meaningful use of an EHR without product certification. To make the testing go without a hitch, practice, practice and practice some more, officials from the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) urged CIOs gathered at the CHIME10 Fall CIO Forum.

Virtually all technologies and processes in a hospital will be affected by the conversion of the nation's disease code sets from ICD-9 to ICD-10, Cynthia Grant, director of Courtyard Group, told a roomful of anxious CIOs. "If you think this will be a software update, think again," she said.

CIOs who are keeping a close watch on the Health Information Exchange (HIE) and Regional Extension Center (REC) efforts in their states are worried the country might be building a Tower of Babel, as Catherine M. Szenczy, senior vice president and CIO of MedStar Health in Columbia, Md., put it.

The nation's healthcare IT chief, David Blumenthal, MD, acknowledged that achieving meaningful use of health IT would be hard work, and then told his audience of more than 600 health system and hospital CIOs and IT managers there would be even harder work ahead.

In West Texas, where unemployment is at 2 percent, the popular chain Chili's had to close some of its restaurants because there were not enough employees to fill the jobs. Imagine what it's like for a healthcare system in that part of the country to recruit IT staff, says Gary L. Barnes, CIO of Medical Center Health System in Odessa, Texas.

A web-based tool that extracts information from the electronic medical record is helping physicians provide better care for patients with diabetes and heart disease, according to a new Kaiser study. A separate study showed the technology, called Panel Support Tool, also helped doctors provide better preventive care.

A Web-based tool that extracts information from the electronic medical record is helping physicians provide better care for patients with diabetes and heart disease, according to a new Kaiser study. A separate study showed the technology, called Panel Support Tool, also helped doctors provide better preventive care.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has selected Accenture as one of four contractors to vie for task orders under its Information Technology Support Services Contract (ITSSC), which will be used to acquire a wide range of IT systems development and modernization services.