EHNAC, WEDI partner on accreditation program; AHA social platform debuts at summit;

News From Around the Web

> A partnership between the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission, a nonprofit standards development group, and the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange is resulting in the creation of the new Practice Management System Accreditation Program. Announcement

> A new social platform for the healthcare industry that connects healthcare professionals and vendors was announced today at the AHA-Health Forum Leadership Summit. The AHA SmartMarket is being billed as an interactive marketplace where healthcare professionals can search products and services, rate and review product performance and collaborate with peers and experts, according to an American Hospital Association release. Announcement

> Pathologist Lukas Kenner and his colleagues, with Tissuegnostics, have created a software that can identify cancer cells in tissue sections and show the presence of biomarkers on cells. The technology will not replace pathologists, but is a supplementary technology that markedly enhances the reliability of the diagnosis," Kenner said in a statement. Announcement

Provider News

> Giving nurses a larger role in care for chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes could help offset the primary care physician shortage, according to a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Article

Health Insurance News

> For value-based payment programs to succeed, insurers must provide incentives for providers that involve more than financial rewards. That's because a wide range of factors, including intrinsic motivation and medical professionalism, influence provider behavior, according to a new blog post from the Commonwealth Fund. Article

And Finally... We've heard of beer gardens, but BEARD gardens? Article