Mike Miliard

Everyone in healthcare uses smartphones nowadays, but no one's quite sure what to do about them.

"One of the simulators is leaking." So reported an alarmed custodian at Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center, upon finding a supine and sheet-covered mannequin dripping fluid onto the floor.

Postponing ICD-10, whenever the new compliance date might end up being, would do little to improve readiness – but could have significant adverse effects and substantial costs, said a majority of respondents to a survey from Edifecs, which develops technologies for regulatory compliance and data exchange.

When one is a writer for a trade publication, one's e-mail inbox is peppered almost daily with press releases touting this or that study, significant for these or those findings, about this or that corner of the industry.

Everybody's talking about accountable care nowadays. But providers aren't the only ones who need to be held accountable as we push off into the uncharted waters of care coordination and payment reform. The folks on the other side of that storied and sacred doctor/patient relationship have important responsibilities too.

A new study from HIMSS Analytics and Kroll Advisory Solutions shows that, a diligent focus on security compliance notwithstanding, healthcare providers are still badly lacking when it comes to privacy protections. In fact, data breaches have only increased in recent years.

Intel Fellow Eric Dishman speaks with Healthcare IT News about the value of mobile health tools and personal health records -- and about the challenges and opportunities for more empowered patients.

Speaking at the HxD Conference, new U.S. CTO says that the future holds more good than we can even imagine right now, touts innovation, government data as drivers.

"We're in a classically disruptive moment right now," said newly-minted U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park, speaking Monday at the Healthcare Experience Design (HxD) conference, "from which more good will come than we can possibly imagine."

Sometime in the next couple months, pending regulatory clearance, Caradigm – the new health IT company launched this past December by Microsoft and GE Healthcare – will get down to business. By combining GE's clinical applications with Microsoft's intelligence platform, officials say the new firm intends to help bring about, on a global scale, “a paradigm shift in the delivery of care."