News
Here's the good news: Seventy-seven percent of free-standing physician practices have an ambulatory electronic medical record system installed, and a robust 90 percent of hospital-owned providers are up and running with EMRs. But there's not-so-good news, too.
An academic medical center in California is notifying patients of a HIPAA breach after officials discovered that a physician's email account had been hacked by an outside source.
National coordinator Karen DeSalvo, MD, revealed on Tuesday that ONC now has a new Chief Privacy Officer. "She brings a set of rich experiences at the intersection of health information, privacy, and modernizing the health care delivery system," DeSalvo wrote in an email to staff.
Tech giant Google is trying out the telehealth waters, after reports last week confirmed the company was in the trial phase of a video-based platform that connects consumers searching online for health data with physicians.
Providers have begun to make targeted use of leading-edge technologies to optimize their electronic medical records, but the vast majority don't yet have the IT capacity to make full use of advancements such as big data and the cloud.
Stage 2 of meaningful use is supposed to be about interoperability of data, with electronic records flowing securely between sites as needed to help hospitals and doctors provide better care. But the number of attestations to Stage 2 has been anemic, and there is plenty of anecdotal evidence suggesting true interoperability is a long way off.
Premier healthcare alliance has offered to put its data analytics to use to help the White House fight antibiotic resistant bacteria, which Premier calls an international public health issue.
The Federal Trade Commission has some news for health IT vendors whose zeal for competitive marketshare outweighs their willingness to share data: They're watching, and will step in where necessary.
Health IT infrastructure has made significant progress in recent years, with EHR adoption among hospitals and physicians growing. However, the development of health information exchanges and interoperability - needed to provide more effective care - still has a long way to go.
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is exporting its knowledge and management services around the world, to countries like China and Lithuania expanding healthcare for emerging middle class populations.