News From Around the Web
> An initiative by the Australian government to increase use of electronic health records appears to be falling flat, The Telegraph reports. Currently, the government's $1 billion eHealth system holds 414 patient records, nine months after its launch. What's more, only 100,000 patients have signed up to use the system, despite the government's goal of having 500,000 patient users signed up by the end of June. Article
> A computer failure at Memorial Hospital of South Bend (Ind.) forced the facility to divert most emergency room patients to other hospitals late last week, SouthBendTribune.com reports. The failure--which lasted for roughly four-and-a-half hours--impacted the ability of ED staffers to use the hospital's electronic health record system and to read electronic film. Post
Medical Imaging News
> Researchers using functional magnetic resonance imaging believe they have developed a way to measure how much pain people are experiencing. In a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Tor D. Wager, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and colleagues reported that in four studies involving 114 participants, they developed a fMRI-based measure that predicts pain intensity in individuals. Article
> After a decade-long increase, the use of magnetic resonance imaging for Medicare began to decline four years ago, according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology. Researchers, led by Richard Sharpe of Thomas Jefferson Medical Center in Philadelphia, examined Medicare Part B data sets between 1998 and 2010 for all MRI examinations performed in the Medicare Population. Article
Provider News
> More accountable care organizations are now led by physicians than by hospitals, according to an analysis by the American College of Physicians. The ACOs approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services earlier this year pushed the number of physician-led groups to 202, compared to 189 for hospital-led groups. Article
And Finally… How could he see over the dashboard? Article