> The Association of Public Health Laboratories has received a $2 million, two-year grant from the CDC to provide technical assistance to help state health departments, public-health laboratories and hospitals connect disparate laboratory reporting systems. Article
> EMR vendor Greenway Medical Technologies has received a U.S. patent for a template-building module that creates custom clinical templates for integration into financial and administrative workflows. Press release
> John Glaser, newly named to head health IT operations at Siemens, gives his explanation of the four-part federal strategy to boost EMR adoption. Column
> Athenahealth has inked a deal to offer web-based EHR, practice management and patient communication services to physician practices affiliated with hospital purchasing cooperative VHA. Press release
>Medica, a regional nonprofit health insurer serving 1.6 million members in the Upper Midwest, has become the first of Minnesota's three largest health insurers to make e-prescribing available to all members--meeting a new state mandate for e-prescribing that takes effect Jan. 1, 2011. FierceHealthPayer
> In a recent piece in the New York Times, Harvard economist David Cutler says that healthcare administrative expenses can be cut in half within five years with the adoption of EMRs, charge capture and real-time claims adjudication. FierceHealthIT
> Nova Scotia is the fifth Canadian province to join a web-based effort to exchange results of cancer surgeries. Article
And Finally... Hey, firefighters work hard. Cut them some slack. Article