Tom Sullivan

Following last week's call from Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, to pause the meaningful use program and determine whether "the bar is too low," a federal hearing Wednesday included testimony from providers and a tech vendor who recommended expanding the timeline because the next phase is overly-prescriptive and threatens to hinder hospitals.

Richard Averill of 3M Health Information Systems counters the jokes about macaws, lampposts, and subsequent encounters by explaining that even the seemingly senseless codes exist for a reason.

While 90 percent of healthcare CIOs view IT innovation as critical to success, the more surprising statistic is that fewer than one-fourth consider their existing infrastructure capable of supporting such technological advancement.

At the Government Health IT Conference and Exhibition in Washington this week, chief information officers from the Military Health System and the U.S. Navy offered candid discussion about the way they make their IT decisions -- most notably with regard to the EHR system DoD is looking to acquire.

Facing ongoing and intense public scrutiny about its joint iEHR with the VA, more recent decisions to evaluate commercial options, and perceived absence from similar projects, such as Healtheway, OSEHRA and VLER, the top tech officials discuss challenges of balancing legacy systems with modernization.

There are more similarities than it might appear, such as storage, refinement and ensuring value. Should the federal government create some sort of big data agency?

The wave of connected microprocessors cresting in many industries is among the factors changing healthcare. John Glaser envisions an industry that looks different from the way it does today.

There's an app for the Mexican restaurant chain Chipotle that lets users order a custom burrito and prepay for it, so it's ready when they arrive to pick it up. At one Houston-area hospital Harry Greenspun visited recently, patients can use that Chipotle app, he said, they just can't access their healthcare information. That got Greenspun talking about transformation.

Previewing his session at the Government Health IT Conference, Tuesday and Wednesday, Siemens Health Services CEO John Glaser discusses IT ramifications in the era of accountability, patient engagement, and what he learned in a clinical trial.

Leading up to next week's Government Health IT Conference, Daniel Newman, MD, CMIO of MEDfx discusses the current state of population health management, how far we have to go, and the need to not lose focus on individual patients.