Portrait of Dr. David Blumenthal

ONC Beacon Communities Lead the Charge

Dr. David Blumenthal | May 5, 2010

Across the nation, in communities large and small, health information technology (health IT) innovators are boldly leading the way toward the adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs). Yesterday, we awarded $220 million in Beacon Community cooperative agreements to 15 trailblazing community consortiums that will demonstrate how the meaningful use of electronic health records can serve as a critical foundation for achieving measurable improvement in the quality and efficiency of health care in the United States.

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Portrait of Dr. David Blumenthal

Why Be a Meaningful User?

Dr. David Blumenthal | April 27, 2010

As I write, physicians throughout the United States are deciding whether to become meaningful users of electronic health records by 2011 when Medicare and Medicaid start making extra payments to meaningful users.  For some the decision may be pretty simple.  Almost 200,000 doctors already have adopted EHRs and are using them at a basic or sophisticated level.  For these physicians, the journey to meaningful use, and its financial and clinical rewards, may be comparatively short. Many other doctors,

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Portrait of Dr. Charles Friedman ,

Health IT Challenges and the Future of Healthcare

Dr. Charles Friedman | April 2, 2010

Getting health IT “right” is difficult. Thousands of brilliant, creative and industrious people around the world have been working for several decades to realize the vision of making the technology a companion to care providers and patients, helping them make better decisions in support of better health.

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