Topic

Healthcare


Webinar: Quality measurements require more national uniformity, health IT

Web Exclusives | Thursday, April 22 2010
Describing the current state of healthcare performance measurements and the transition to EHRs as “a cacophony of well-meaning but uncoordinated signals,” Helen Burstin, MD, senior vice president for performance measures of the National Quality Forum, explained during a HIMSS quality measurement webinar on April 21 that by setting national priorities, the strategies and efforts of multiple groups in the U.S. can be aligned towards improvement.
 

The Stepping Stone to Structured Reporting: What Does Natural Language Processing Mean for Radiology

Features | Monday, April 19 2010
Written by Jeff Byers
Like much of healthcare, radiology is a state of flux. From reimbursement cuts to adopting EMRs, day-to-day operations are being transformed. Dictation software is evolving in the radiology field as natural language processing (NLP) is being developed to harness content from dictated, free text into a manageable report that can be used in radiology.
 

AHRQ: U.S. healthcare quality is s-l-o-w-l-y improving

Top Stories | Wednesday, April 14 2010
According to the 2009 National Healthcare Quality Report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Department of Health and Human Services, the quality of healthcare is improving, but slowly, especially in the areas of preventive care and chronic disease management.
 

HIMSS: A self-contained approach to data warehouse design

Conference News | Wednesday, March 03 2010
Written by Gina Narcisi
ATLANTA--Richard E. Biehl, PhD, a data warehouse architect and consultant for Data-Oriented Quality Solutions, used his expertise in designing data warehouses--specifically, the star-schema dimensional warehouse plan--in a presentation Wednesday at HIMSS10.
 

HIMSS: Radiology and IT depts need to marry their skills

Conference News | Wednesday, March 03 2010
Written by Gina Narcisi
ATLANTA--“Health IT support [within a hospital] may not have the skill set to manage images, and radiology support does not have skill set to manage integration of all hospital information, so we need both groups to work together. I think that both groups together will make a much stronger system,” said Janice Honeyman-Buck, PhD, independent imaging informatics consultant and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Digital Imaging, during her session Wednesday at HIMSS10.
 

Joint Commission: More hospitals achieving evidence-based care

Industry News | Friday, January 15 2010
The Joint Commission, in its fourth annual report, found continual improvement on 12 quality measures reflecting the best evidence-based treatments and practices leading to the best outcomes in American hospitals.
 

AHRQ may expand healthcare consumer survey to include IT

Industry News | Tuesday, June 23 2009
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is seeking public comment on its proposal to expand the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems surveys to include questions that will obtain consumer perspectives on their providers' use of health IT.
 

JAMA: Comparative effectiveness must dig deeper for true impact

Industry News | Wednesday, June 17 2009
Although comparative-effectiveness research is currently a hot topic on Capitol Hill, an expert at the Stanford University School of Medicine is suggesting that policymakers take a step back and make sure that the plans for comparative-effectiveness research "go deep enough to make a difference."
 

First ‘meaningful use’ definition proposed

Top Stories | Tuesday, June 16 2009
The ultimate goal of an EHR that exemplifies meaningful use is to enable significant and measurable improvements in public health through a transformed healthcare delivery system, according to the Meaningful Use Work Group, which presented its first recommendations today on the evolving definition to the Health IT Policy Committee.


 

Sebelius staffs new healthcare reform office

Top Stories | Wednesday, May 13 2009
Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius has appointed personnel for the newly created Office of Health Reform, which will spearhead the department's efforts to pass health reform this year and coordinate closely with the White House Office of Health Reform.
 

Global imaging alliance partners with vendors for imaging diagnostics, data

Partnerships & Alliances | Monday, April 06 2009
The World Health Imaging Alliance (WHIA) has cemented partnerships in the medical imaging community that will enable it to ramp up its efforts to bring digital imaging technology to sites in need around the world.
 

GE Healthcare IT, Microsoft enter health IT partnership

Partnerships & Alliances | Monday, April 06 2009
GE Healthcare IT and Microsoft have entered into an independent software vendor (ISV) alliance agreement to provide customers with enhanced healthcare IT administration capabilities that support GE's Centricity Enterprise healthcare IT solution.
 

ACVP: Economic recession ups the ante on marketing CV services

Conference News | Tuesday, March 31 2009
ORLANDO, Fla.—During the Great Depression of the 1930s, companies that maintained or initiated an aggressive marketing plan prospered over those who did not. Hospitals and physician practices should take this lesson to heart in today's challenging economic times, according to Phyllis B. Marino, who spoke last week at the Alliance of Cardiovascular Professionals (ACVP) meeting.
 

HHS seeks nominations for two healthcare IT advisory boards

Industry News | Wednesday, March 11 2009
Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is seeking nominations for the newly created HIT Standards Committee and HIT Policy Committee.
 

Marchibroda leaves eHealth Initiative for IBM

Executive Announcements | Wednesday, March 11 2009
Janet Marchibroda, former CEO of the eHealth Initiative, has left the organization to become chief healthcare officer at IBM.
 

ONCHIT to issue state info-sharing recommendations

Industry News | Wednesday, March 11 2009
In an effort to resolve policy differences among states on sharing electronic health information, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONCHIT) will release recommendations for handling interstate sharing next month from the Health Information Security and Privacy Collaboration.
 

AIM researcher advocates for healthcare IT adoption, with caution

Top Stories | Wednesday, February 04 2009
Although a study in the Jan. 26 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine touts the cost and life-saving benefits associated with hospital healthcare IT adoption, lead investigator Ruben Amarasingham, MD, said that healthcare IT should always be accompanied with a strategic, collaborative deployment plan to achieve a successful outcome.
 

Daschle bows out of HHS nomination

Top Stories | Tuesday, February 03 2009
Former Senator Tom Daschle, President Barack Obama's nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has withdrawn from consideration for the post over his belated payment of $128,000 in federal taxes.
 

CBO: Stimulus would provide nearly $90B to HHS, spawn healthcare IT adoption

Top Stories | Tuesday, February 03 2009
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released a report approximating the costs of the current updated economic stimulus package currently being debated in the Senate, as well as estimating its assistance to the U.S. healthcare system.
 

Moody’s forecasts Obama healthcare plan will be boon for hospitals

Industry News | Monday, November 10 2008
As the financial market speculates about the impact of president-elect Barack Obama’s proposed economic initiatives, Moody’s Investors Services issued a report late last week forecasting that his election will provide a boon to United States’ hospitals.
 
Web Exclusives

Feature: Tort reform may curb non-indicated imaging

Physicians in states with medical liability tort reform laws ordered fewer imaging studies for emergency patients with mild-moderate head trauma, according to a study published July 13 in the online edition of the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.

Beaconology for beginners: A chat with ONC's Aaron McKethan

The ability to transform healthcare delivery at the community level requires information and tools for both consumers and providers—not one or the other, said Aaron McKethan, program director for the Beacon Community Program under the Office for the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC). McKethan discussed "Beaconology," an informal term used by ONC to describe the basics of the Beacon Program, in an exclusive interview yesterday.

Feature: Early a.m. rad shift expedites communication of urgent findings

An early morning radiologist shift can expedite the communication of urgent findings and improve patient care, according to a study in this month's Journal of the American College of Radiology. “The Joint Commission and the ACR have emphasized the importance of improved communication, particularly of critical test results, for better patient care,” Rathachai Kaewlai, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, shared with Health Imaging News.

Feature: U.S. needs national strategy to curb imaging overutilization

Medical imaging overutilization--a growing concern in the U.S.--exposes patients to unnecessary radiation, while also adding to rising healthcare costs, according to a study published online Aug. 24 in Radiology. In an interview, William R. Hendee, PhD, lead author, reviewed various methods by which medical imaging could be curtailed.

Radiology: Prelim study shows CE breast CT outperforms CT, mammo

Dedicated contrast-enhanced (CE) breast CT delivered significantly improved conspicuity of malignant breast lesions, including ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), compared with unenhanced breast CT and mammography, according to a study published in the September issue of Radiology.

SMU nets nearly $600K to study ultrasound in bone strength assessment

Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas has received a $596,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Neurological Disorders and Stroke Institute to study the role of ultrasound in determining the effects of radiation on bone.

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