Electronic Health Records (EHR, EMR)

Seven entities awarded grants

An electronic health card designed to maintain an individual's personal health record and provide a payment card option that can access an individual's HSA, FSA or HRA account was launched during the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society's annual conference last month.

Financial rewards are being used as the carrot for healthcare providers to adopt electronic health records, achieve meaningful use and include quality reporting and tracking in outcomes measurement.

David Blumenthal, MD, the national coordinator for health information technology, announced his departure from the ONC just 17 days before the HIMSS11 conference began on Feb. 19 in Orlando, Fla. Blumenthal came onboard just two weeks prior to HIMSS09.

The advisory panel that is developing proposals for the next set of EHR quality measures is weighing whether to follow the same structure for Stage 2 of meaningful use as for Stage 1, with core and specialty items, and whether to carry forward the 2011 measures.

Interoperability, ACOs and meaningful use topped topic list

To forge ahead or hold back – that is the question

Work calls for connecting 500 hospital labs to public health agencies

The comments on Stage 2 meaningful use guidelines are flooding into government offices fast and furious. Understandably, they are fraught with worries – the stakes are high.

Aneesh Chopra is the Chief Technology Office of the United States, previously served as managing director with the Advisory Board Company, a publicly traded healthcare think tank.