Meaningful Use
The Washington & Idaho Regional Extension Center (WIREC) announced last week that it had reached a milestone of signing up its 1,000th primary care physician (PCP) to use its services to help them implement and adopt EHRs. WIREC noted that it is one of the first RECs (162 in all) to reach that milestone.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) announced Friday two new authorized testing and certification bodies (ATCBs), bringing the total number to five.
WellDoc, which develops technology solutions to improve chronic disease management and reduce healthcare costs, announced Monday the first integration of a clinically-tested mHealth coaching platform with an electronic health records system.
The American Medical Association (AMA) and 103 state and specialty medical societies are urging the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to revise the Medicare e-prescribing penalty policy, which would penalize physicians in 2012 if they don't e-prescribe in the first six months of 2011.
The University of Michigan Health System reports that a four-year Medicare physician group demonstration project, similar to an accountable care organization, has saved more than $15 million in the cost of care.
About 90 percent of healthcare providers that purchased electronic medical records technology are off track to meet their meaningful use implementation goals, according to the 2011 Black Book Ranking's user survey.
Physician practices may face total EHR adoption costs of $120,000 per physician, according to a new survey, which finds that the speed with which a practice fully implements its EHR and shifts to the new, accelerated workflow is critical to reducing the overall cost of adoption.
Wolters Kluwer Health's Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW), an academic publisher for medical students, has acquired Knoxville, Tenn.-based iCare Academic, the maker of iCare EMR, an educational program that simulates electronic medical records to prepare future nurses for 21st century healthcare.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT is establishing several "communities of practice" to help its Beacon program establish clinical decision support technologies, care transitions programs, and pharmacy solutions and tools in healthcare improvement projects.
Two new publications from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are aimed at helping developers of software and computer systems for doctors' offices, clinics and hospitals make electronic health record systems easier to use.