> In an invitation-only town hall meeting held at the White House this week that included several hospital executives, National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari moderated a conversation about increasing the momentum of health IT, Healthcare IT News reported. Justin Barnes, vice president of marketing industry and government affairs with electronic health record vendor Greenway Medical, said that the White House specifically was interested in the status of EHR adoption and interoperability. Article
> In a recent blog post, healthcare consultant Patrick Howard was critical of New York's recently announced efforts to electronically monitor the prescription of pain narcotics, saying that it put too much of an unnecessary burden on doctors and pharmacists by requiring them to access separate systems. "I continue to be an advocate for e-prescribing controlled substances, however, I believe there is a better way to accomplish it" and still curb substance abuse, Howard said. Post
> Aforementioned EHR vendor Greenway and Microsoft HealthVault are teaming up to help patients take better control of their health data, according to a joint announcement this week. Patients with digital health history forms can establish a HealthVault clinical record. Announcement
And Finally… Did the GPS actually make her drive into the sand trap? Article