News From Around the Web
> Massachusetts' Neighborhood Health Plan and Partners HealthCare will award $4.25 million in grants to 49 community health centers. The grant money will be used to provide Meaningful Use training, health IT reporting and other assistance. Announcement
> The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued guidance regarding some changes to Stage 1 of Meaningful Use effective in 2013, HealthDataManagement reports. Some of the changes include modifications to the requirements for electronic prescribing, computerized provider order entry and vital sign charting. Article
> Covered entities that have valid business associate agreements in place by the time that the HIPAA omnibus rule is finalized will have an additional year--until September 2014--to revise those agreements to comply with the new rule's changes, according to an advisory from the law firm of Davis Wright Tremaine. Agreements that don't meet that deadline have only until this coming September to make the changes. Advisory
Medical Imaging News
> Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University's Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging have used a new neural imaging technique to show how the human brain adapts to injury. In a study published in the journal Cerebral Cortex, the researchers demonstrated that when one area of the brain loses function, secondary areas of the brain activate to fill in the gap. Article
> A large majority of neurologists say they would use amyloid imaging in the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, if the scan were paid for by health insurance, according to a survey published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. The authors--Eran Klein of the department of neurology at the Oregon Health & Science University and Jeffrey Kaye, a neurologist with the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Portland, Ore.--surveyed dementia specialists from U.S. medical centers to determine attitudes about amyloid testing. Article
Mobile Healthcare News
> A study of text messaging designed to influence teens to adopt healthy lifestyles has found that adolescents prefer messages with an active voice that reference teens and recommends specific, achievable behaviors, according to an article in the January issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. The 177 teenagers who participated in the study said that messages should come from nutrition professionals delivered as a text at a frequency of two messages or less per day. Article
And Finally... If only they had a fondue pot large enough … Article