05/23/2012
Yesterday, HHS announced that the U.S. and Mexico have agreed to adopt technical guidelines on sharing information for various public health activities. Mexico also has become the fourth country to join CDC's international Laboratory Response Network. Modern Healthcare, Examiner.
05/22/2012
United Kingdom health officials have launched an initiative designed to make it possible for patients to go online to access their electronic health records and other medical information by 2015. The project also would let patients book physician visits online. Daily Mail et al.
05/14/2012
According to researchers, mobile technology could help improve access to health care for people living in remote regions of developing countries. However, they note that certain barriers are hindering the widespread implementation of mobile health initiatives. New York Times.
05/07/2012
Many health programs in low- and middle-income countries are using health IT to improve communications and access to care, according to a Results for Development Institute report published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization. FierceHealthIT, R4D release.
05/04/2012
Researchers from the University of California-Los Angeles have created an online game that trains players to identify malaria-infected red blood cells. The game is designed to use crowdsourcing techniques to help improve malaria diagnoses. Healthcare IT News, Computerworld.
05/02/2012
The Healthcare Information Management Systems Society and the United Kingdom's IT trade group BCS plan to introduce the HIMSS Analytics Electronic Medical Records Adoption Model to measure electronic health record adoption at U.K. hospitals. Healthcare IT News, CMIO.
04/11/2012
A new report from consultancy firm CSC recommends that U.S. health care organizations expand their use of social media beyond marketing purposes. According to the report, the U.S. lags behind several other countries in hospital adoption of social media tools. InformationWeek.
04/04/2012
A KLAS Enterprises report finds that Asia, the Middle East and the United Kingdom represent emerging health IT markets. The report notes that without government incentives, health IT adoption has been slow for most countries outside the U.S. Modern Healthcare, KLAS release.
03/13/2012
A recent CDC study finds that smartphones could offer a lower-cost and more accurate way of collecting disease surveillance data in developing countries than paper-based methods. Researchers presented the findings at a CDC conference in Atlanta. Modern Healthcare et al.
03/06/2012
Computer Sciences Corporation has signed a nonbinding letter of intent with the United Kingdom's National Health Service on plans to advance an electronic health record project. The deal comes after NHS halted plans for its national health IT project. Wall Street Journal et al.
03/05/2012
A new report by the Boston Consulting Group and Telenor Group predicts that mobile health tools could improve health care worldwide by reducing elder care costs, boosting medication adherence and improving health care access for patients in rural areas. eWeek et al.
02/15/2012
An eight-country study released today by Accenture finds that the U.S. is a leader in several areas of physician health IT adoption. For example, the study found that 54% of U.S. primary care physicians sent prescriptions electronically, compared with a global average of just 20%. Modern Healthcare, Accenture release.
01/20/2012
A report by 2020health calls for the United Kingdom's National Health Service to establish a telehealth system that builds on the experiences of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The report calls VA "the world's No. 1 provider of telehealth at scale." Modern Healthcare.
01/18/2012
A new report says that Western European hospitals spent about $3.2 billion on health IT in 2010, though the types of tools used ranged widely. According to the report, the United Kingdom spent $221.3 million on health IT, while Spain spent $25.3 million. FierceHealthIT, CMIO.
01/10/2012
An Accenture survey finds that U.S. physicians are less likely than doctors from other nations to report benefits of using health IT. Forty-five percent of U.S. doctors said health IT would improve diagnostic decisions, compared with the survey average of 61%. Healthcare IT News.