News

Envisioning a future when healthcare is data-driven in a big way, Deloitte Consulting has launched a new business unit and is investing between $150 million to $200 million in life sciences and healthcare analytics and launching ConvergeHEALTH, a new business unit to give the work of transformation momentum.

IT security is complicated, made even more so by the dynamic nature of technology and the ever challenging threat landscape. It may be best to think of IT security as a chronic illness, a condition that requires ongoing treatment, testing, and re-evaluations.

One in 20 meaningful use attesters will face an audit, and half of those will undergo a pre-payment audit. During educational session "Thriving on the Meaningful Use Audit -- Prepared Not Scared," attendees will learn how to face up to those odds.

Onsite Occupational Health and Safety has tapped UPMC to provide second opinions and medical consultations in Afghanistan via telemedicine services.

A proposed bill that aims to reduce regulatory burden in healthcare IT is drawing backlash from mHealth advocates who feel it may endanger lives and decimate the industry. Sponsors say the bill would prioritize the FDA's attention to technologies that pose the greatest health risk, rather than giving the agency broad authority over "low-risk health IT."

Whether looking to draw attention to their practices, experiment with new technology or simply have a bit of fun with their otherwise dreary financial operations, several American medical professionals are now accepting bitcoins, the Web-based virtual currency, in addition to dollars.

A Mayo Clinic team is launching a new company to provide clinical decision support tools for the ICU, operating room and emergency department. The startup is backed with $1.1 million in seed funding from Mayo Clinic and Silicon Valley investors The Social+Capital Partnership, and nonprofit Rock Health.

When it comes to keeping patient data secure, vigilance must be institutionalized, says Daniel Berger, president and CEO of Redspin, Inc., a healthcare IT security assessment company based in Santa Barbara, CA.

Federal, state and local governments have long used tax deductions and credits as policy tools to direct individual and organizational behavior. We take it for granted that incentives work -- the debates on government incentives tend to cluster around their ethical use or the economics involved.

When it comes to America's healthcare costs, spiraling ever upward, one of the main culprits is unnecessary testing. One researcher says thinking more about the psychological roots of how physicians make decisions, and how information is presented to them, could help limit the ordering of gratuitous screenings.