Do medical scribes defeat the purpose of EMRs?
Date: Sep 09, 2010
The Los Angeles Times printed an interesting article about the rising use of medical scribes - young, often pre-med students - who follow physicians on their rounds to input notes into the hospital's EMR system.   Read »

ONC devising best practices for EHR adoption
Date: Sep 08, 2010
If you've got a lot of money and your reputation on the line in an effort to create a huge paradigm shift in how we as an industry deliver healthcare, you need to create an infrastructure and make available the resources to support this tsunami of social and technological change. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has carefully architected such an infrastructure.   Read »

How meaningful use of EHRs can benefit the chiropractic profession
Date: Sep 07, 2010
Federal incentives for the meaningful use of EHRs has been a hot topic within the discipline and profession of chiropractic. A fairly recent article in Chiropractic Economics brought up some interesting issues.   Read »

Blumenthal: "It's just the beginning of the beginning"
Date: Sep 03, 2010
I don't normally blog on Fridays, but after speaking with Dr. David Blumenthal, head of ONC, yesterday after the announcement of the final two Beacon communities, I didn't want to wait to post until Tuesday.   Read »

EHR market's exponential growth
Date: Sep 02, 2010
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan pegs the EHR market to double in growth in three years, from $1.3 billion in 2009 to an estimated $2.6 billion in 2012. The research firm noted that the HITECH Act's federal incentive programs and healthcare reform are two of the drivers for the uptick.   Read »

Detroit Medical Center posts ROI from EMR deployment
Date: Sep 01, 2010
The recent announcement by Detroit Medical Center officials that the deployment of their EMR has reaped five million dollars in savings and improved patient safety is tempered by the fact that the hospital's journey began in 1998. Furthermore, DMC pumped $50 million through the years to get its system up and running. This should not discourage hospitals that are just now implementing EMRs.   Read »

It's official: CCHIT and the Drummond Group can certify EHR products
Date: Aug 31, 2010
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT announced that it has authorized the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology and the Drummond Group to certify EHR products to qualify for the federal incentives for meaningful use of EHRs.   Read »

Hospital use of EHRs: Not much progress
Date: Aug 30, 2010
A recent report shows that despite the big push for health IT adoption, only 2 percent of hospitals in the U.S. can meet the federal government's criteria for meaningful use of EHRs. Are you surprised?   Read »

Using smartphones to drive EHR adoption
Date: Aug 26, 2010
Several studies point to a higher adoption rate of smartphones by physicians than the general public. Given the historical low rates of technology adoption within the healthcare industry, this news may come as a surprise.   Read »

The Mad dash to health IT adoption
Date: Aug 25, 2010
Despite the relaxation of the proposed meaningful use criteria for the adoption of EHRs and EMRs, critics claim that the final rule is still too stringent and the rushed timeline will doom the whole transformation to a fully electronic healthcare delivery system. Politics aside, the critiques are actually a good thing.   Read »