"Meaningful Use" entries

Challenge to Meaningful Use by House leaders highlights difficulty of asking incumbents to be innovators

Working too closely with an industry can undercut innovation

Four leading members of the House Ways and Means Committee tore away last Thursday at the polite, cautious, incremental approach that the Department of Health and Human Service has been taking toward key goals of HITECH act that was meant to drag health care into the 21st century.

Specifically, the House leaders signaled their disappointment at the Stage 2 Meaningful Use rules, promulgated last August by the Office of the National Coordinator and the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The Congressmen isolate certain rules that appear to be less stringent than Stage 1, point out that the key goals of interoperability and data exchange are weak, and most notably ask for a total stop to payments made to health care providers under Meaningful Use.

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The state of Health Information Exchange in Massachusetts

Health IT and HIE advances in Massachusetts may lead to national shifts.

Although health information exchange should be identified as a process, having the structures and organizations to facilitate exchange is a challenge facing health care. A recent conference articulated these issues, and presented clear plans on how Massachusetts is addressing them.

Health Information Technology: putting the patient back into health care

In health information technology, we have a rare chance to ensure that the most affected members of the public actually have their own direct representative. A letter in support of Regina Holliday.

The state of health IT according to the American Hospital Association

The letter conveys a rather sorrowful message about the state of health IT in the United States. One request–to put brakes on the requirement for hospitals to let patients see their own information electronically–has received particularly strong coverage and vigorous responses.

Five tough lessons I had to learn about health care

Realistic conclusions and opportunities in health care.

Despite the disappointments I've undergone in learning about health care, I expect the system to change for the better. Those who want a better system need to look at the areas where change is most likely to make a difference.

Report from HIMSS 12: wrap-up of the largest health IT conference

Recalcitrant instincts that depressed me and progressive suggestions that restored me. Details DICOM, Watson, and other interesting projects.

Report from HIMSS 2012: toward interoperability and openness

Two key pillars of the Stage 2 announcement are requirements to use the Direct for data exchange and HL7's consolidated CDA for the format.

Report from HIMSS: health care tries to leap the chasm from the average to the superb

HIMSS has promoted good causes, but only recently has it addressed cost, interoperability, and open source issues that can allow health IT to break out of the elite of institutions large or sophisticated enough to adopt the right practices.

HIMSS asks: Who is Biz Stone and what is Twitter?

Explaining cutting edge social media to the last industry to computerize.

As patients and practitioners gather on Twitter, the service has evolved into a peer-to-peer healthcare marketplace. That's why Twitter co-founder Biz Stone's keynote at HIMSS is so fitting.

Why geeks should care about meaningful use and ACOs

How healthcare data reforms and incentive reforms are connected.

Clinical people tend to focus on meaningful use incentives as "how do I get paid to install an EHR." But geeks can see the bottom line: healthcare reform is pointless unless we get the measurement issue right.