Physician Services Company Announces Meaningful Use Service for Doctors DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., April 26 /PRNewswire/ — WorkSmart MD, a Florida based physician services company, announces the launch of Offsite Practice Support and Meaningful Use consulting services for doctors. The company's services facilitate cost effective and easy transition from paper-based medical records to electronic. On February [...]

The ultimate objective of every HITECH initiative is to create a National Health Information Network. With close to 1,000 EHR vendors, and no standards, how will we accomplish this mission? The State Health Information Exchange project is an initiative managed by the ONC (Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology). The main objective is [...]

The promise of a National Health Information Network (NHIN) is an exciting thought. Finally – Dr. Smith will be able to send John Doe's health record to Dr. Jones across town. Best of all, the NHIN, through its integration with state HIE's and RHIO's, should allow Dr. Jones to receive Mr. Doe's health record in [...]

Investments in health IT produced a net savings of $3.09 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs between 1997 and 2007, according to a new study. The technology also produced measurable gains in patient safety, outcomes and patient satisfaction, says the report, conducted by the Center for Information Technology Leadership, an academic research organization founded by Boston-based Partners HealthCare System. CITL published its findings in HealthAffairs.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis today announced a total of nearly $1 billion in Recovery Act awards to help health care providers advance the adoption and meaningful use of health information technology (IT) and train workers for the health care jobs of the future. The awards will help make health IT available to over 100,000 hospitals and primary care physicians by 2014 and train thousands of people for careers in health care and information technology. This Recovery Act investment will help grow the emerging health IT industry which is expected to support tens of thousands of jobs ranging from nurses and pharmacy techs to IT technicians and trainers.

Over the next four years, the amount of personal medical information online will increase exponentially, opening up new avenues for hackers to expose personal data that, unlike financial information, can result in a permanent violation of privacy.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has set a deadline of 2015 for healthcare facilities to being using electronic health records (EHRs), thereby ushering in the digitalization of all patient information. As patient data is aggregated on health networks, it becomes a bigger target for those who want to steal it and exploit it on the Internet, experts say.