Quality and Safety

If the U.S. is going to get a handle on healthcare spending, providers and healthcare organizations are going to have to get serious about accountable care organizations, says one expert.

Seems like the sky is the limit for cloud computing, whether it is to replace servers, manage mobile apps or handle system recovery. Cloud vendors are constantly coming up with new ways to utilize a platform that seemed like little more than vapor five years ago.

Effective use of analytics is "not something you can buy from a vendor; it's an organizational and cultural value that has to grow and mature," said James E. Gaston, speaking Thursday at the Healthcare IT News/HIMSS Media Healthcare Business Intelligence Forum in Washington.

For the most part, providers are still wary over the mHealth movement. And this caution just might be preventing them from big care improvement opportunities, say the findings of a new study.

Geisinger Health System, the pioneering integrated care network, is "perfectly designed to do a huge number of experiments in both the provider and payer sides," said its Chief Executive Officer Glenn Steele Jr., MD, on Thursday.

Is it wrong to be skeptical about the integrity of quality measures in meaningful use, particularly in the wake of what one quality improvement expert called "patient safety's first scandal"? Those at the forefront of healthcare quality and patient safety movements say, "no," but also believe any problems have been contained.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius seemed to have weathered the maelstrom surrounding the botched rollout of the government's health insurance exchanges back in October and come through the other side where more than 7 million people signed up for health insurance through the exchanges. But on Thursday, after five years at the HHS helm, Sebelius resigned.

To healthcare mogul Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, the dirtiest four-letter word in the realm of digital health is "silo."

EHRs were designed to satisfy specific functions for distinct parts of the care process. Currently, EHRs are all about making sure all the warnings are heeded, and all boxes are checked. It's about bringing the information together to make physicians' jobs easier so they can make faster, more informed patient care decisions.

Boston has long proven itself a mecca for healthcare innovation, a hub of some of the best minds and most prestigious hospitals in the nation. And the 2014 Boston Children's Hospital Innovators' Showcase proved no exception.