News From Around the Web
> Late last month, the National Library of Medicine launched the Value Set Authority Center Authoring Tool, which enables people to apply for authoring and stewardship credentials, according to a recent post to the Health IT Buzz blog. The tool also improves search efforts, helps to perform code validation, and gives added guidance to potential authors. Post
> UPMC researchers continue to run tests on BrainPort, a computer-brain interface device developed by Middletown, Wis.-based Wicab that aims to bring sight to the blind, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. The device--which translates information fed into a video camera attached to sunglasses into small electric shocks on a mouthpiece that can be read by a wearer's tongue--was approved for sale in Canada in September, and is currently under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Article
Provider News
> A new report in the New England Journal of Medicine may shed light on some of the reasons hospital medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the nation: Doctors won't tell patients when other clinicians make medical mistakes. Although there is guidance on how a physician who commits the error should disclose the information to the patient and family members, there are no such guidelines for doctors who discover a colleague's mistake. Article
> Recent trends in hospital and clinic closures will devastate communities with only one hospital, according to U.S. News & World Report. The closures are for a variety of reasons, including demographic shifts, politics and the economy, the article states, and reimbursement cuts to hospitals due to healthcare reform may exacerbate the problem. The issue is not just the lack of geographical access, but the fact that residents of "medical deserts" in rural areas are less likely to have good health insurance, according to Brian Smedley, Ph.D., a health policy expert with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Article
Health Insurance News
> The Obama administration is receiving more technical and enrollment help from insurers to solve and bypass problems with HealthCare.gov, the Washington Post reported. This development is "tacit acknowledgment" that despite 24/7 repair efforts, the federal health exchange might not work properly by the Nov.30 deadline. Article
And Finally... Ho, ho, oh no! Article