The HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT have launched a new initiative designed to help spur the use of health IT in emergency medical services, EHR Intelligence reports.
About the Initiative

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has released certification and meaningful use requirements for electronic health records (EHRs). These require that EHR vendors include evidence of user-centered design and user test results in their certification submission. To be able to obtain the ONC certification (and meaningful use funding) EHR vendors must follow a formal User Centered Design (UCD) process and perform summative usability testing on specific areas of the product.

Excerpts from HealthIT Buzz Blog post by Jacob Reider, MD / Acting National Coordinator for Health Information Technology

Date and time: Wednesday, January 15, 2014 3:00 pm
Eastern Standard Time (New York, GMT-05:00)

Join the Next eHealth Provider Webinar on January 14 to Learn How You Can Prepare for Stage 2

Are you participating in the EHR Incentive Programs? Have you completed two or more years of Stage 1? If so, it’s time to start preparing for Stage 2 and earn an incentive for 2014 participation.

Join CMS for the next eHealth provider webinar on Tuesday, January 14th from 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. ET to get ready for Stage 2.
What will you learn?

HEALTHCARE: COLLABORATING FOR BETTER SYSTEMS

U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued final guidance for developers of mobile medical applications, or apps, which are software programs that run on mobile communication devices and perform the same functions as traditional medical devices. The guidance outlines the FDA’s tailored approach to mobile apps.

Here are the Top 10 Healthcare Usability Myths Debunked

Myth # 1 Clinicians are uncomfortable with technology and just need more training.

Fact: Current HIT systems often don’t fit the way end users think and work.

Myth # 2 Put it all on 1 screen to make it easier to use.

Fact: Developers need to understand workflows and tasks to know what information is needed.

Myth # 3 Whoever has the Most features wins.

Fact: Vet your current feature set. Less may be more.

Today’s digital omnivores express a preference for mobile screens across all professional tasks – an important behavioral shift that has potential to dramatically shape the way developers, content providers and marketers engage with clinicians as the three-screen workflow becomes the norm. As physicians and other healthcare

Alere™ Connect has been granted a 510(k) market clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the Alere™ MobileLink. The new product offering is one of Alere's connected device technologies designed to empower patients by allowing self-testing at home and delivering data quickly and seamlessly to clinical systems accessed by their healthcare providers.

Black Book Rankings has released the "2013 State of Replacement EHR Market Study," the most recent in a series of Black Book™ strategic industry reports focused on the healthcare technology market. The study is a follow up assessment on the status of electronic health record users, all of which indicated deal-breaking dissatisfaction with the current vendor, termed the "Year of the Great EHR Switch" in a previous Black Book poll.

Use of electronic health records can reduce the costs of outpatient care by roughly 3 percent, compared to relying on traditional paper records.

That's according to a new study from the University of Michigan that examined more than four years of healthcare cost data in nine communities. The "outpatient care" category in the study included the costs of doctor's visits as well as services typically ordered during those visits in laboratory, pharmacy and radiology.

The AliveCor Heart Monitor gives you instant, portable screening opportunities. Utilize the device anytime, anywhere to evaluate heart rate and rhythm. The AliveCor Heart Monitor is cleared by the FDA for sale in the U.S. to licensed medical professionals and prescribed patients to record, display, store,
and transfer single-channel electrocardiogram (ECG) rhythms.

For more info check out their site: http://www.alivecor.com/en

How do electronic health records (EHRs) connect you and your doctor? In the past, medical data was only stored on paper, making it difficult for your health care providers to share your information. Between 2001 and 2011, the number of doctors using an EHRsystem grew about 57%, making it easier for you and all of your doctors to coordinate your care, and often reducing the chance of medical errors. Where are electronic health records headed? In this Infographic, view the history of electronic health records and see how they may improve your health and health care in the future.

In a recent article written by the American College of Physicians, Yul Ejnes suggests that although English is the first language of Medicine, it has become the second language of EHRs.

"How and why did this happen? Most of it stems from the morphing of the medical record from a clinical tool to an audit and billing tool. The focus is no longer on capturing the patient’s history, examination, test results, and the physician’s thought process. Instead, today’s goal is to record as many things that were said or done as one can in order to justify the highest billing code, meet the performance measure, earn a high quality score, and lawyer-proof the record – and to do so in as little time as possible."

The Department of Health and Human Services has announced that it has gone beyond their goal of having 50% of doctors and 80% of eligible hospitals using electronic health record systems (EHRs) by the end of 2013.

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said during an interview on May 22 that, as of the end of April, more than half of doctors and other eligible professionals and more than 80% of eligible hospitals have received Medicare or Medicaid incentive payments for the meaningful use of EHRs (For more on MU, see http://bit.ly/18JvJc4 ).

A free, easy-to-use mobile application that helps people prevent heart disease is now available through iTunes. The app, created by the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation as part of a nationwide competition, was announced today by Farzad Mostashari, M.D., the national coordinator for health information technology, and Janet Wright, M.D., the executive director of the Million Hearts initiative.

Usability is "the extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use" [ISO9241]. Usability represents an important yet often overlooked factor impacting the adoption and meaningful use of electronic health record (EHR) systems. Without usable systems, doctors, medical technicians, nurses, administrative staff, consumers, and other users cannot gain the potential benefits of features and functions of EHR systems.