A few years ago, cost, privacy concerns, design shortcomings and trouble sharing information across different health systems were deemed the most critical barriers to widespread adoption of electronic personal health records (PHRs) by a paper in the Health Affairs journal.This week, a new low-cost, interoperable, untethered, user-controlled mobile platform launched with the hope of tackling [...]

In our rush to establish a national electronic medical record (EMR) system as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, powerful silos of independent EMR systems have sprung up nationwide. While most systems are being developed responsibly, like the Wild, Wild West, many have been developed without an objective eye toward quality [...]

Electronic health records such as those maintained by hospitals and doctors’ offices don’t have a lot of value for healthcare researchers, which means new sources of health data are needed to improve quality in the U.S. healthcare system.And moving doctors away from paper patient records to EHRs won’t do a lot to reduce costs either, [...]

How does a state that’s been consistently ranked near the bottom of every “healthiest places” list, with high prevalence of obesity, smoking, diabetes and heart disease, find itself a leader in something as new and challenging as health information exchange?According to two of the guys helping run the show, it’s lots of forward-thinking people, some [...]

The latest electronic health records guidelines are now out, with priorities of making the technologies work together and finding ways to get patients and their doctors to use the technology more.Welcome to stage 2 of the “Meaningful Use” program intended to encourage physicians to implement and use EHR systems in their practices. The stage 2 [...]

I cover medical software and health IT for Software Advice, so I was curious to learn about some of the secrets to success when switching to an EMR that might not meet the eye. To find out what is it that separates the health care providers who truly reap the benefits of switching to EMR, [...]

Physician offices in Ohio and Mississippi became the first in the U.S. to exchange health information using a new set of secure messaging standards.Officials hailed the milestone as another step toward a day when Americans’ health records will be easily accessible to physicians anywhere in the nation, Information Week reported.Doctors in Lima, Ohio and Biloxi, [...]

Every week, MedCity News highlights the best of its MedCitizens: syndication partners and MedCity News readers who discuss life science current events on MedCityNews.com. Now here’s the best of what YOU had to say.

There are two questions from Eligible Professional specialists about the CMS EHR Incentives that I’m asked over and over again.Question 1: “Do specialists have to meet all of the required Core Set Meaningful Use objectives? We don’t do vitals, we don’t prescribe, we don’t ______ (fill in the blank).’The Meaningful Use tablets that Moses brought [...]

Current medical news from today, including pilot program allows hospitals to sell data to drug companies for clinical trials, new diabetes drug cuts cholesterol when used with Lipitor, and healthcare social media tips for hospitals using Twitter.