Detroit Medical Center executives say they have achieved improved patient safety and saved $5 million to boot, thanks to DMC’s system-wide electronic medical system. It is the second year in a row in which computer-based healthcare information processing created major improvements in quality of care and cost-savings for DMC’s eight hospitals, officials said. The windfall [...]

The merger of two Atlanta-based technology firms with extensive footprints in the payer sector is designed to provide health plans and insurers with access to more consumer health data. Ebix, an international supplier of on-demand software and e-commerce services to the insurance industry, announced Monday that it is acquiring A.D.A.M., Inc., for roughly $66 million [...]

The convergence of personal health records and mobile communication devices may offer the right tool to engage consumers to use technology for self-care, taking cost out of the healthcare system, according to a new Deloitte Issue Brief from the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. The brief explores the potential benefits of mobile communication devices, such [...]

Spending on state and local health IT systems will increase by 19 percent over the next five years, forecasts a new report from market research firm INPUT. “States, localities, and regional extension centers are going to move quickly to capitalize on EHR funding,” said Kristina Mulholland, senior analyst, at INPUT. “It is essential that they [...]

GE Healthcare is bringing today’s EMR technology to tomorrow’s practitioners by donating its latest platform to the University of Texas at Austin for educational use. The University’s Health Information Technology Summer Certificate Program just graduated its first class of 54 students at the end of July. These students used GE Centricity® Advance software in the [...]

Robyn Whittaker from the University of Auckland and colleagues argue that information technology (IT)-based programs can improve cardiovascular disease (CVD) management and patient empowerment, but must be accompanied by supportive social and political environments and active patient and clinician engagement. In an Essay in this week’s PLoS Medicine the authors argue that despite good evidence [...]

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) report that physicians who use an automated, electronic medical record (EMR) tracking system to follow-up on patients with an abnormal Pap test could increase the number of women who achieved diagnostic resolution and have women achieve resolution in less time than using traditional methods. These findings appear [...]

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has awarded a three-year demonstration $3 million grant aimed at reducing birth-related injuries. The grant supports quality improvement and data analysis initiatives. AHRQ gave the award to Fairview Health Services in Minneapolis makes it possible for the Premier healthcare alliance Prenatal [...]

The patients at hospitals with the most advanced type of electronic medical records are likely to spend 22.4 percent less time in the emergency room than at other hospitals, a new study from the W.P.Carey School of Business at Arizona State University shows. “The good news is that if you choose a hospital with the [...]

Physicians who use an automated, electronic medical record tracking system to follow up on patients with an abnormal Pap test could increase the number of women who achieve diagnostic resolution and do so in less time than using traditional methods, according to new research. Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) reported their findings [...]

Officials in Oregon say hospitals accidentally killed 32 patients; in Texas, as the immigration debate simmers, the government is tallying illegal immigrants’ health costs. The (Portland) Oregonian: “At least 32 patients died as a result of preventable errors in Oregon hospitals last year, according to a report released Thursday by the Oregon Patient Safety Commission. [...]

Health information exchanges cannot share sensitive patient information beyond a simple point-to-point exchange without first obtaining a patient’s consent, concluded the federal privacy and security tiger team. The panel, which advises the Health Policy Committee, clarified the matter at an Aug. 16 meeting. Its previous guidance on the privacy obligations of health information exchanges (HIEs) [...]

Cardica, Inc. (Nasdaq: CRDC) today announced that Cardica and Intuitive Surgical, Inc. have entered into a license agreement providing Intuitive with a worldwide, exclusive license to Cardica’s intellectual property, which relates to tissue cutting, stapling and clip appliers, for use in the robotics field. Pursuant to the license agreement, Cardica and Intuitive may also enter [...]

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have for the first time developed a way to visualize coronary artery plaques vulnerable to rupture using multi-color computed tomography (CT), an innovation that will lead to better and earlier diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. The data are published in the September issue of Radiology. Ruptures of atherosclerotic plaques [...]

The panic is over. We can all get back to living our lives. Last week the World Health Organisation officially declared that the swine flu pandemic is over. Yes, remember swine flu? The infection that, this time last year, had the nation in the grip of mass hysteria? No, I hadn’t thought about it for [...]