Priming the Pump: The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s Healthcare Promise

Blog Entries

Broadband plan raises connectivity questions
Date: Mar 17, 2010
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has forwarded to Congress a National Broadband Plan that contains several recommendations which, if adopted, would enhance efforts to increase use of HIT. Read »

On HIEs, more information would be helpful
Date: Mar 16, 2010
Coming on the same day as the announcement that HHS will put another $162 million toward Health Information Exchanges (HIEs), the news that Pennsylvania has decided not to partner with Delaware as it works to develop its own HIE would be easy to overlook. Read »

Privacy discussion needs prioritizing
Date: Mar 12, 2010
When it comes to health information technology, there may be no more critical issue than figuring out how to protect the data and privacy rights of patients after their health information has been digitized. Read »

“Front line” stories demonstrate provider concerns
Date: Mar 11, 2010
With the end of the comment period approaching for ONC’s proposed “meaningful use” standards, it seems safe to say that the majority of groups representing healthcare providers have significant concerns about the impact of the proposed standards. Read »

Consumer “perspectives” reveal gaps in knowledge
Date: Mar 10, 2010
When the deadline comes for comments on the proposed “meaningful use” standards, policymakers will certainly have no shortage of perspectives to consider as they work on finalizing the standards. Read »

Study shows risks of sharing data
Date: Mar 09, 2010
There’s been no shortage of stories recently about the increase in attempts by hackers to get access to digitized health information, but a recent Canadian study shows that many healthcare providers may unwittingly be giving the hackers a helping hand. Read »

How do you re-boot an HIE?
Date: Mar 05, 2010
Across the country, as well as at this week’s HIMSS10 Conference in Atlanta, there are numerous signs that the healthcare sector is making progress when it comes to health information networking. Read »

Idaho hospital blazes own trail
Date: Mar 04, 2010
This week, all eyes are on the big HIMSS10 Conference in Atlanta. Read »

New task force should help providers get connected
Date: Mar 03, 2010
When the recently announced “government-wide” HIT task force is finally up and running, it’s going to have a long list of concerns vying for its attention. Read »

Policymakers need clear view of safety concerns
Date: Mar 02, 2010
Even as policymakers are working to move healthcare practitioners across the country toward greater use of EHRs, concerns are being raised about the potential risks to patient safety those same EHRs may cause. Read »

It's Not About Meaningful Use

With the impending comment deadline for Meaningful Use (MU) fast approaching, many organizations, from

HIMSS10 Roundtable Part II: Raise or lower the bar on meaningful use?

The great thing about the HIMSS10 roundtable that I attended this past Wednesday was that there were great discussions, which means multiple blog entries...

HIMSS10 Roundtable Part I: Should EMRs and EHRs get all the attention?

At HIMSS10 in Atlanta this week, you couldn't escape the topic of meaningful use and ARRA.

Dispatch from HIMSS

Every year, I describe my top 10 impressions from HIMSS. Here's my summary of the event for 2010:

Gingrey: HIT stimulus bill 'right thing to do'

In the HIE Symposium’s opening keynote, Congressman Phil Gingrey, MD (R-Ga.), said using the stimulus bill to drive adoption of integrated EMRs is “...