The FDA for the first time approved a set of mobile applications that will allow providers to monitor glucose levels in real-time for patients with diabetes, the Washington Post's "To Your Health" reports (Dennis, "To Your Health," Washington Post, 1/24).
HIMSS NCA Lunch and Learn Webinar - "The Importance of User Experience in Health IT"
The first lHIMSS NCA unchtime webinar of the 2015 will take place on Wed, Feb 25, 2015 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EST and will focus how to understand what users want and how they want it, and design and build tools and apps that actually get used.
The usability of the system is the probably most important factor in making an informed choice of which EHR to use for your practice. Most every bit of software says that it is easy to use, but how can you choose an EHR that is actually usable?
Accenture announced that CMS awarded the company a five-year, $563 million contract to continue managing HealthCare.gov, the Wall Street Journal reports (Armour, Wall Street Journal, 12/29).
Three health IT groups announced a new strategic partnership designed to streamline the process for health data exchange across state lines, Health Data Management reports (Slabodkin, Health Data Management, 11/17).
The federal government continued to implement the HITECH Act, enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, during the third quarter of 2014. As implementation of HITECH's programs begin to wind down, more than $25 billion in incentive payments have been made to providers to spur electronic health record adoption, and more than 90% of eligible hospitals and 75% eligible professionals have adopted and are using EHRs as a result.
A coalition of health care organizations sent a letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell recommending that the agency overhaul the meaningful use program with a focus on interoperability, Healthcare IT News reports.
SANTA CLARA, CALIF. -- Placing more care decisions in the hands of consumers and personalizing that experience is a major theme in health application and product development today, as evidenced at the 8th annual Health 2.0 conference, held in Santa Clara, Calif., last week.
However, providers, payers and government regulators may tap the brakes on this trend, as they continue to worry about patient safety and privacy in the new digital realm.
Join ONC's Mike Lipinski on Thursday, October 2, 2014 from 1pm – 2pm EDT for a webinar focusing on the ONC 2014 Edition Release 2 final rule. The presentation will provide an overview of the 2014 Edition Release 2 Final Rule, alternative 2014 certification criteria and approaches, certification program updates and new resources!
Sign up now, it's free!
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6141078466728250625
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society has outlined three formal requests for congressional action to advance health IT efforts, Healthcare IT News reports (Monegain, Healthcare IT News, 9/18).
The American Medical Association released a framework outlining eight priorities for making electronic health records easier for providers to use, Modern Healthcare reports (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 9/16).
Our Chief Experience Officer, Bennett Lauber, has been invited to participate as a member of the Health IT Policy Committee’s Implementation, Usability, and Safety Workgroup.
The draft charge for the workgroup is:
The Health IT Implementation, Usability, and Safety Workgroup will provide input and make recommendations on policy issues and opportunities for improving how health IT is designed, certified, implemented and used to minimize safety risks and leverage data to support improvements in patient care and health outcomes.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT issued a new final rule on the 2014 certification criteria for electronic health records that offers more flexibility and drops proposed 2015 voluntary criteria,
ONC proposed a “safety-enhanced design” (SED) certification criterion for the Proposed Voluntary Edition that was unchanged as compared to the 2014 Edition certification criterion.
ONC did, however, solicit public comment regarding whether ONC should modify the certification criterion. Specifically, ONC requested comment regarding whether:
Medical experts told members of Congress that health IT solutions, such as electronic health records, are falling short in efforts to improve patient safety, Healthcare IT News reports (McCann, Healthcare IT News, 7/18).
The HIMSS EHR Association in a letter urged the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and CMS to quickly issue a final rule regarding 2014 meaningful use reporting requirements and to delay the start of Stage 3 until at least 2018, Healthcare IT News reports (Monegain, Healthcare IT News, 7/11).
Several simple steps -- such as implementing a decision-support tool and providing explanations of health insurance industry vocabulary -- could significantly improve the usability of HealthCare.gov, according to a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the Los Angeles Times' "Science Now" reports.
Our Chief Experience Officer, Bennett Lauber will be presenting "EHR Usability, The future of medicine is easy to use" at the 3rd Annual OSEHR Conference on Sept 5th at 10:30 am.
OSEHRA, an emerging leader in advancing open source electronic health record software and related health information technology, is bringing together the best and brightest from healthcare and other open source initiatives to share their expertise in three key areas:
Jacob Reider, deputy national coordinator and chief medical officer at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, said that the agency wants to make the meaningful use program more flexible and less focused on providers meeting a specific set of clinical quality measures, Modern Healthcare reports.
User Experience and Usability Testing have become fashionable lingo in the health IT world, yet EHR software is rife with usability issues; convoluted workflows, poor content, and poor interaction design are common frustrations that plague providers daily. Changing healthcare reimbursement models, Meaningful Use, PQRS, ICD-10... don’t providers have enough concerns without having to worry about their EHR?
The Usability People work with you on improving the Usability of Healthcare IT.
Together we may save a life! #SafeHealthIT