05/24/2013
The University of California-Los Angeles Health System used Twitter to post videos and photos of a brain pacemaker surgery performed Thursday morning. The health system says that the goal of tweeting the surgery was to call attention to the use of brain pacemakers. Los Angeles Times.
05/23/2013
Data on eight key hospital-acquired conditions will continue to be included on the Hospital Compare website, CMS officials clarified. A recent story from Bloomberg erroneously said the website after July would no longer contain the information, officials said. HealthLeaders Media.
05/22/2013
The use of health information exchange and data warehousing has kept the medical records of more than two million patients of Moore Medical Center in Oklahoma safe after the health care facility was damaged during a massive tornado on Monday. Modern Healthcare.
05/20/2013
IDC Health Insights has released an accountable care organization guide to help health providers make IT and business funding decisions. The guide emphasizes the importance of analytics, workflow and patient engagement technologies. Clinical Innovation & Technology et al.
05/17/2013
A report from HIMSS Analytics finds that bed management technologies represent one of the most promising market opportunities for vendors because of their low rate of market penetration. The report ranked 24 types of health care software applications. FierceHealthIT.
05/17/2013
An Institute of Health Technology Transformation report finds that data analytics is critical to the success of population health management and accountable care organizations. The report lists several steps that are key to the effective use of health data analytics, such as building partnerships with health plans to obtain claims data. HIT Consultant, Clinical Innovation & Technology.
05/17/2013
The Pennsylvania Attorney General's office is reviewing a five-year, $8.9 million contract under which Truven Health Analytics would build the platform for a new health information exchange in the southeastern region of the state. Government Health IT, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
05/15/2013
A study by communications agency Ideahaus that was published in the Journal of Communication in Healthcare finds that health care communications professionals prefer using YouTube over Twitter and other social media websites. Healthcare IT News.
05/15/2013
A yearlong survey of text4baby program users finds that the text messaging service promoted maternal and child health care. Users say the program increased their health knowledge and reminded them of appointments, among other benefits. FierceMobileHealthcare.
05/09/2013
Thirty health care and patient safety organizations have sent a letter asking Congress to approve $31.5 million to support CDC's National Health Care Safety Network -- which tracks health care-associated infections -- as well as a related CDC program. Health Data Management.
05/09/2013
An analysis from ABI Research finds that by 2018, close to five million medical body area network sensors are expected to be shipped. ABI says that companies like GE Healthcare and Philips already have shown interest in the market. FierceMobileHealthcare, MobiHealthNews.
05/08/2013
For the first time, CMS has made available an online data source showing hospital charges for certain common medical procedures. Federal officials also announced $87 million in grants to help local governments make health care pricing data available online. New York Times et al.
05/08/2013
A new report from the Ponemon Institute finds that the use of inefficient communications technology costs U.S. hospitals a total of about $8.3 billion annually because of decreased productivity, lengthy patient discharge times and other issues. The report suggests that HIPAA is hindering hospitals' adoption of advanced communications tools. Wall Street Journal's "CIO Journal" et al.
05/07/2013
A focus group conducted by HIMSS Analytics finds that health IT leaders generally agree on their top IT infrastructure priorities, which are related to mobile devices, security, data storage and the exchange of information and images. Clinical Innovation & Technology et al.
05/07/2013
Hospitals increasingly are using social media and webcasts to broadcast surgeries in real time. Some experts have praised the educational benefits of such practices, while others say the practice offers no value beyond public relations benefits for hospitals. Washington Post.