> The future of healthcare could include mobile emergency hospitals with CTs, operating rooms, and clinical labs that communicate with globally available EMRs, said James P. Keller, ECRI Institute's vice president of health technology evaluation, and safety, at the recent annual Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) meeting. Article
> Budget-conscious providers still looking for the right EHR package can now check out big-box retailer Costco, which is working with Allscripts and reseller Etransmedia to provide a complete package that it says represents up to "40 percent savings over comparable offers elsewhere." Article
> Pittsburgh-based UPMC is integrating Oracle's GoldenGate with Cerner's 724Access software to assist in reducing potential downtime for UPMC's eRecord system from hours--which is typical in the industry--to minutes. The system will be able to support 4,500 concurrent clinicians and more than 850,000 interactions daily. Announcement
> Oregon and Illinois will begin launching their initial health information exchange core services in early 2012. Both states are expected to publish contractor proposals shortly to help them develop systems and databases needed to support the exchanges. Article
> The California Department of Public Health has reported a security breach that could have exposed the health and personal data of about 9,000 current and former state employees. The breach is the department's second security incident in less than a year. Article
And Finally... A court order was needed to undo this hospital mix-up. Article