Coalition of States, ONC & SAMHSA Successfully Piloted Behavioral Health Data Exchange
John Rancourt | June 27, 2014
A coalition of states, in partnership with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, successfully completed a pilot project for the interstate exchange of electronic behavioral health data using Direct. This activity illuminated some of the real challenges with using Direct, both technical and operational, but ultimately demonstrated that such exchanges can be performed.
Read Full Post.Patients Play a Vital Role in Improving the Quality of Information in their Medical Records
Erin Poetter Siminerio | June 24, 2014
Federal incentives such as meaningful use and programs like the Blue Button Initiative are increasing patients’ electronic access to their medical records and encouraging greater engagement in their own care. That’s a good thing since medical records can contain errors . Having a “second pair of eyes” on the medical record can help improve the quality of the information that providers ultimately use to make clinical decisions. Patients, after all,
Read Full Post.Launching this fall: the National Blue Button Consumer Campaign
Lygeia Ricciardi | June 23, 2014
At the recent Health Datapalooza Conference held here in Washington DC, ONC announced the next step for a national Blue Button Campaign in coordination with supporters of the Blue Button Initiative. The Blue Button Initiative is a public-private partnership that seeks to give consumers easy and secure access to their health records from a variety of sources in a format they can use.
Read Full Post.A new pilot helps battle hepatitis C with health IT and telemedicine
John Ward | June 18, 2014
Authors
John W. Ward, MD
Director, Division of Viral Hepatitis
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Amy Helwig, MD, MS
Medical Officer
Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT
Health IT and telemedicine are important tools to help early diagnosis and treatment of a growing problem in the U.S. – hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched a new pilot program to help use telemedicine to fight HCV,
How a screening prompted by clinical decision support saved a patient’s life
Brett Coughlin | June 16, 2014
Anti-aircraft artillery and abdominal aortic aneurysms have a couple of things in common. First, they are both known as ‘Triple A’ (AAA). Second, they both blow up.
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