EVENTS

MAY

Summit on States' Implementation of Health IT Initiatives

Baltimore

MAY

West Coast Summit on Using Health Data To Boost Care

San Francisco

MAY

Briefing on Legal Issues Related to Health IT Use

Washington, D.C.

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FROM THE FOUNDATION

Informing Choices, Improving Outcomes

The California Joint Replacement Registry collects data on device efficacy, surgical techniques, and patient outcomes for hip and knee replacements. A new report details how this CHCF-sponsored effort is faring.

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Friday

Sunshine Laws Might Not Affect Doctors' Rx Habits, Study Finds

An Archives of Internal Medicine study compares Maine and West Virginia -- both of which have enacted sunshine legislation requiring drugmakers to disclose payments to physicians -- with other states that were demographically similar but lacked such legislation. It finds that the sunshine laws had "negligible to small effects" on physicians' prescribing of brand-name drugs. Reuters, CMIO.

AHRQ Seeks Experts To Help Update Quality Measures for ICD-10

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is seeking nominations for experts to join about 10 work groups that will update quality measures to align with ICD-10 code sets. The agency is accepting nominations through June 29. Health Data Management, Modern Physician.

Growing EHR Adoption Prompts More Concerns About Patient Privacy

Health experts have raised concerns about the security of patients' health information as more health care providers adopt electronic health records. Some experts say federal officials cannot completely eliminate EHR-associated privacy risks. Kaiser Health News/Washington Post.

Study: Search Engines Generate Varied Results for Health Care Queries

A study finds that Ask.com, Bing, Google and Yahoo! offered a range of results when users looked for breast cancer data. Researchers said consumers should consult multiple search engines when looking up medical information. American Medical News, FierceHealthIT.

EU Agency Launches Website on Suspected Medication Side Effects

The European Medicines Agency recently launched a website offering reports on possible adverse reactions to medications. Users can sort the adverse reaction data based on factors such as age group, gender and type of suspected side effect. CMIO, AFP/Google News.

University of California Spearheading New Initiative To Mine 'Big Data' in Health Care

NIH Director Francis Collins, Atul Butte of the Stanford School of Medicine, David Patterson of the University of California-Berkeley and Taylor Sittler of UC-San Francisco discussed new efforts to mine "big data" for health care and scientific research.

Running Time: 4:48

DATA POINTS

How Has Online Access to Health Information Affected Consumers' Medical Knowledge?

Sixty-seven percent of consumers say that online access to medical data has made them better informed as patients, while 4% say that online access to medical data has made them misinformed, according to a survey conducted by IPSOS for Wolters Kluwer Health.

FEATURES

ONC Floats Possible Rules of the Road To Govern NwHIN

by Helen Pfister, Susan Ingargiola and Rachel Sam, Manatt Health Solutions

While it is too early to speculate what the ultimate Nationwide Health Information Network governance system will look like, a request for information released last month by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT is an important step toward enabling trusted and interoperable health information exchange on a nationwide scale.

PERSPECTIVES

Gov't Promotes Consistent Approaches to Consumer and Health Data Privacy

by Deven McGraw

The health care sector should pay close attention to recent reports from the White House, the Federal Trade Commission and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. The documents, which have implications for health care, lay out a consistent approach to protecting personal data privacy.