One of the major goals of the federal government's push for nationwide electronic medical record adoption is to create an information network where "health data can flow freely, privately, and securely to the places where they are needed." So far, this is proving to be a challenge for the nation's hospitals and doctors.
Calculating market share for the electronic health record (EHR) market is no easy task. There are over 300 software vendors, many market segments (consider: size of practice served, specialties services, inpatient/outpatient) and very "fuzzy" sources of data.
As we wait for the federal government to finalize important sections of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), there is a lot of talk about the financial incentives for implementing electronic health records (EHR). And understandably so. Practices that implement an EHR under the federal government’s guidelines stand to gain nearly $50,000 in incentives over the next five years.
Last week, during the fever pitch surrounding the announcement of Apple’s iPad tablet, Software Advice surveyed 178 physicians, nurses, medical students and healthcare IT professionals about what the healthcare industry’s ideal tablet would look like.
In this table, we've combined the meaningful use objectives for both eligible professionals and hospitals for the Stage 1 adoption year, the required EHR technology criteria to accomplish those objectives and what criteria the government will use to measure meaningful use.
