The American College of Physicians, which represents 132,000 internal medicine specialists, is proposing a privacy rule that says researchers should maximize appropriate uses of information to achieve scientific advances without compromising ethical obligations to protect individual welfare and privacy.

The ACP discusses its members fears about re-uses of personal data as well as re-uses of research data and samples a new document, which is an update of a paper produced by ACP two years ago.

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Continua Health Alliance will partner with the NFC Forum, a non-profit industry association that advances the use of near field communication (NFC) technology, to expand standards-based connectivity technology in the health IT industry.
 

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The deadline for HIPAA 5010 - Jan. 1, 2012 - is approaching faster than many providers, payers and vendors would like. And, confusion abounds about what “readiness” means, says the Healthcare Billing & Management Association (HBMA).

To help provide some clarity, HBMA, a nonprofit educational resource and advocacy group representing third-party medical billers and billing professionals, submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) earlier this month a standard definition of 5010 readiness.

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The Center for Connected Health has received a research grant from the McKesson Foundation's Mobilizing for Health initiative to integrate a text-messaging program into an existing program at Massachusetts General Hospital to help diabetes patients better manage their condition.

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The U.S. healthcare system scored 64 of a possible 100 on key measures of performance, according to the third national scorecard report from the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System. The report released Oct. 18 also reveals a poor score - 53 of a possible 100 - on measures of efficiency, showing relatively low use of electronic information systems and high administrative costs.

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A new article published in the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety finds that differences in the quality and safety of medical treatment received by minorities could be reduced through the better use of health information technology.

An editorial accompanying the article, meanwhile, calls for automating and standardizing the data collection about a patient's race, ethnicity and language to identify and address inequities in the quality of care for minorities.

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Royal Philips Electronics is teaming up with Integrated Oncology Network (ION), a development, practice management and advisory firm committed to patient care and quality in oncology. The move aims to expand Philips' services to address broader issues in cancer service management.

Officials say the partnership will build on Philips' existing capabilities in advanced imaging, treatment planning, image-guided interventional therapy, home monitoring and IT solutions for oncology.

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Eastern Connecticut Health Network, Inc. (ECHN) is building an HIE, and the health system has tapped MobileMD to help get the job done, signing a five-year agreement.

Yardley, Pa.-based MobileMD will provide connectivity to community physicians as well as ECHN's five outreach sites, two hospitals, and surrounding medical community including Visiting Nurse and Health Services Corporation, skilled nursing home and rehabilitation center and other providers.

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Nearly 50 percent of federal CIOs have another official agency job function in addition to being chief information officer. That's just one of the professional distractions they face and, although the law calls for it, many CIOs are not responsible for all the privacy and security tasks that perhaps they should be.

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Eighteen California hospitals, health systems, clinics and physician groups -- many of them catering to underserved populations -- will receive grants totaling nearly $20 million from Blue Shield of California to help them participate more effectively in accountable care organizations (ACOs).

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Social media is a way to "go where people are," says the co-author of a new whitepaper from CSC that aims to show healthcare organizations why they shouldn't take the "wait-and-see approach."

The whitepaper, titled Should Healthcare Organizations Use Social Media, recommends “starting now, but starting small and monitoring outcomes.” 

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Kitware, which specializes in open-source healthcare technology, has been awarded Phase I Small Business Innovation Research funding from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering to create an augmented reality visualization prototype that will improve the efficacy and safety of robot-assisted prostate surgery.

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Healthcare IT stakeholders gathered Oct. 14 in Washington for a work meeting, discussing ways IT could help improve transitions in care.

The invitation-only meeting was hosted by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), the John A. Hartford Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and Kaiser Permanente.

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A social media guide for physicians is being released Monday by Avvo at the Third Annual Health Care Social Media Summit, which kicks off at the Mayo Clinic.

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University of North Carolina Hospitals has implemented the RF Assure Detection System, from Bellevue, Wash.-based RF Surgical Systems, in its surgical suites. The system uses radio-frequency detection technology to prevent surgical items from remaining inside a patient post-surgery.

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Orion Health will acquire Microsoft's hospital information system (HIS) software assets, including RIS/PACS, previously known as Amalga HIS. The two companies will also collaborate to co-market their health information exchange (HIE) and data aggregation and analysis products.

Under the memorandum of understanding, the companies will co-market their products Orion Health HIE and Microsoft Amalga Unified Intelligence System (UIS) – to the public and private HIE and integrated delivery network (IDN) markets.

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Within the past month, 14 critical access hospitals have joined the Nebraska Health Information Initiative (NeHII), Nebraska's statewide health information exchange.

Powered by the Axolotl HIE platform from OptumInsight, NeHII electronically delivers clinical information at the point of care, integrating a wide variety of patient clinical data including laboratory results, ER reports, discharge summaries, radiology reports, progress notes, transcription, medications and other medical information.

The hospitals that recently joined NeHII are:

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Intelligent InSites, which develops real-time location systems (RTLS) technology for hospitals, has partnered with Secure Care Products to expand the latter’s portfolio of patient safety solutions.

[See also: Tracking a bright future for RTLS.]

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If you plan on attending the Social Media Summit hosted by Mayo Clinic next week get ready to experience your Twitter feed “in real life,” as one speaker puts it.

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It’s no secret telemedicine has had a profound impact on the industry, both nationally and globally.  Organizations in big and small cities are seeing the benefits of employing such technology, and the biggest impression could arguably be on those living in rural communities. 

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