Monday, March 8, 2010

Health Informatics News

Health Informatics News

UPMC Develops PHR Technology

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 07:51 AM PST

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is developing personal health record (PHR) technology in collaboration with Google Health (Mountain View, Calif.) as well as Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and technology partner dbMotion , both Pittsburgh-based. UPMC and its partners have developed a service-oriented architecture (SOA)-based interoperability platform, developed by dbMotion, a company in which UPMC invested as part of a strategic partnership. This platform shares and organizes patient information in a meaningful way, regardless of the system or format in which the data were originally stored, says the organization. The organization says it will launch its integration with Google Health this spring, and that the data will be aggregated from throughout UPMC inpatient and ambulatory settings and the sharing ultimately will be bi-directional. UPMC is an $8 billion integrated global health enterprise headquartered in Pittsburgh, and is one of the leading nonprofit health systems in the United States. With 50,000 employees, UPMC is western Pennsylvania’s largest employer. It includes 20 hospitals, 400 doctors’ offices and outpatient sites, long-term care facilities and a major health insurance services division, and in collaboration with its academic partner, the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences.

MGMA: Meaningful Use Will Lead to Decreased Productivity

Posted: 08 Mar 2010 07:49 AM PST

New research conducted by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA, Englewood, Colo.) suggests that the changes in practice operations necessary to meet the 25 “meaningful use” criteria proposed as part of the federal EHR incentive program would lead to decreased provider productivity.  The research also identified which meaningful use criteria could prove particularly challenging for physicians to accomplish. MGMA’s respondents estimated the change in provider productivity resulting from the implementation of all 25 of the meaningful use criteria, not including the temporary decrease in productivity that occurs with any implementation of a new EHR. More than two-thirds of respondents (67.9 percent) said that physician productivity will decrease, with 31 percent stating that physician productivity will decrease more than 10 percent. The MGMA research also highlights the specific criteria that many respondents say would be “difficult” or “very difficult” to achieve.  These include: 80 percent of all patient requests for an electronic copy of their health information be fulfilled within 48 hours (45.9 percent) 10 percent of all patients be given electronic access to their health information within 96 hours MGMA conducted the research in February 2010, and data include feedback from 445 respondents representing providers in medical group practices throughout the United States.

Merge to Acquire AMICAS

Posted: 05 Mar 2010 10:15 AM PST

Boston-based AMICAS, Inc., a provider of imaging solutions, and Merge Healthcare Incorporated (Milwaukee, Wis.) announced that they will enter into a definitive merger agreement. The companies say Merge will acquire all of the outstanding shares of AMICAS for an aggregate of $248 million. The Board of Directors of AMICAS has unanimously voted to terminate AMICAS’ previously announced agreement with an affiliate of Chicago-based Thoma Bravo, LLC and to enter into the Merge acquisition agreement. According to the companies, AMICAS and Merge will become a global healthcare IT provider, bringing together an array of image and information management and related solutions. The combined company’s solution portfolio will range from comprehensive automation solutions for cardiology and radiology providers, enterprise content management solutions for IDN’s, to OEM solutions for health IT applications to trial, site and patient management solutions for pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and contract research  

CHIME Launches State-level Web site

Posted: 04 Mar 2010 08:33 AM PST

The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) launched its online CIO State Network (StateNet) that it says will enhance communication among healthcare chief information officers on state matters related to the HITECH Act and on other key state health IT activity. The new site, www.ciostatenet.org , is designed to enable all CIOs public access to information, communication and coordination among IT executives at the state level. The project will go live later this month and has at least one CIO volunteer for all 50 states, including Washington, D.C. Under the HITECH Act, states are tasked with having a state HIE plan; providing a state-designated entity responsible for health IT; offering strategic and operational plans for HIE infrastructure; and providing state-level directories to enable statewide technology platforms for HIEs. To support CIO leaders in each state, CHIME has developed a toolkit to help gather basic information about HIT activity, such as identifying the HIT planning authority, strategic and operational plans, state-level directories, and HIE business and operational processes. In addition to the development of the toolkit, CHIME is providing resource materials, including an inventory of state recovery and HIT websites. The organization also has developed individual list-serves for each state, and is creating publicly available Web pages for sharing state-specific information.

Hyland Buys eWebHealth

Posted: 04 Mar 2010 08:23 AM PST

Cleveland-based Hyland Software has purchased privately-held eWebHealth (Reading, Mass.), a provider of hosted medical records workflow solutions. eWebHealth delivers workflow solutions by a SaaS model for clinical, administrative and financial environments and also automates specialty areas like physician coding, signature completion and compliance. Nearly 100 small and mid-size hospitals and healthcare facilities located across the country are eWebHealth customers, says the company. Hyland Software is the developer of OnBase, a suite of document management and content management solutions. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

New billable service overlooked

Posted:

3/6/2010 © Orlando Sentinel A survey of some Florida hospitals and specialists shows that few were aware of a new Medicare benefit that would reimburse them for providing face-to-face education to kidney-disease patients regarding their treatment options.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)