adoption

Pick a project and stick to it--or national health IT adoption may never happen. That's the message Gov. Phil Bredesen (D-TN) had for attendees at today's HIMSS morning keynote session. Bredesen, who co-chairs the State …

Following up on the deal which won physicians a reprieve from the dreaded 5 percent Medicare fee cutback, two Senators have jointly introduced a bill including Medicare quality reporting for physicians. CMS will begin discussing possible quality measures as soon as January 2007, but doctors will not begin to report quality data in 2008, when final measures are expected to be in place. …

> In Los Angeles, many residents are concerned about the potential loss of King/Drew Medical Center. But an Op-Ed in the Los Angeles Times explains why everyone should be more than happy to see the hospital go. Op-Ed

> State governments are playing an …

A study by OTN, a physician practice services company, has found that 66 percent of community-based oncologists believe that pay-for-performance (P4P) programs are a useful tool for oncologists and an overwhelming majority (94 percent) think that adopting P4P measures will improve patient outcomes. But whether they like them or not, 81 percent realize that P4P programs will eventually become part of their practice. "It is clear from the survey that clinicians are interested in P4P programs and are willing to work to develop them," noted John Amos, President and CEO of OTN in a press release. In addition to their views on P4P programs, almost all the oncologists surveyed (97 percent) felt that IT adoption would become necessary in order for them to manage their medical practice.

For more statistics from the study:
- see this press release

"When disaster strikes, the country pulls together, making an effort to learn from the tragedy and minimize the impact of future disasters," observe Wayne Owens and Frank Richards in a CNet article. But there's an ongoing tragedy that quietly kills people every day--and many people aren't making the effort to prevent it from happening. Medical mistakes kill between 44,000 and 98,000 people each year--the equivalent, the authors observe, of two 737 jets crashing each day. They …

A new Ohio law mandates that hospitals post data on performance of 100 common procedures and report the average cost of 60 common outpatient procedures. Data is already available on 100 inpatient procedures. The information will be available on a Web site by May 2007. Yesterday we reported on the complexities of healthcare pricing and how transparency is lagging behind the adoption of CDHPs. Ohio's expanded reporting is a step in the …

Applied Digital said it intends to work with the Department of Homeland Security to develop a program that will use RFID Technology to keep tabs on immigrants after they enter the country. CEO Scott Silverman made headlines last week when he suggested to an interviewer on Fox News that the VeriChip, an RFID microchip his company makes, could be surgically implanted in guest workers and other temporary visitors to the U.S. as a means of identification. The company is now taking pains to …

The Continua Health Alliance will unite Intel, IBM, Cisco, Samsung, Philips and other big tech names with companies working on the healthcare side in an effort to encourage innovation and adoption of new health IT technologies. The group's focus will be remote monitoring products designed to allow physicians and other healthcare providers to track patients remotely at home. Key partners on the healthcare side include Medtronic, Kaiser Permanente, GE Healthcare and Boston's Partner's …

The House is expected to take up legislation that would encourage the adoption of information technology in healthcare and establish national standards on privacy and the implementation of new systems. HR 4157 was sponsored by House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Nancy Johnson (R-CT) and Rep. Nathan Deal (D-GA). Critics note that the new privacy standard would take precedence over existing state law in many cases. CQ HealthBeat reports that the legislation would increase the number …

Attendees of TEPR could be forgiven for being a little anxious about the future. Conference organizer and Medical Records Institute head Peter Waegemann put out a call for action. He noted that at the first conference some speakers thought EMRs would be reality within three years, then ten years. Now, more than twenty years later, we're still arguing about different standards.

The keynote, from AMA secretary Joseph Heyman, addressed the many reasons for a lack of EMR adoption. …