Clinical Decision Support Regulation Legislation – 2015
By William Hyman – Draft legislation in the House related to the regulation of Clinical Decision Support software has been revived for 2015 as a component of the proposed Cures Act.
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Dispatch from China
By John Halamka MD – The first part of this week I have been in China – Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Xuzhou as part of a Harvard Medical School program to help the Chinese create a learning healthcare system while they build 1000 new hospitals and train 300,000 new primary care givers.
Don’t Forget the Paper: Records and Policies
By Matt Fisher – Another HIPAA breach settlement announcement and another lesson from the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (“OCR”). Cornell Prescription Pharmacy (“Cornell”) is a single location pharmacy located in Colorado that will pay OCR $125,000 to resolve allegations of a variety of HIPAA violations. When the facts of the circumstances are described, it will likely raise questions as to why the settlement was so low.
Does Small Data Hold the Keys to the Health Care Kingdom?
By John Smithwick – Lately, there’s been a lot of noise around the use of big data in health care. As the name implies, big data looks for patterns and trends in extremely large sets of information. And it’s big business.
A Patient Centered Look at The Internet of Things
By Kelley Sullivan – We’ve previously discussed the Internet of Things (IoT). Now it seems the industry is starting to focus on how the Internet of Things will manifest itself and how healthcare can use it to the best of its ability.
Patient Engagement, Usability, and Meaningful Use Stage 3
By Bennett Lauber – Patient engagement was a very hot topic at the recent HIMSS conference in Chicago. There was no shortage of exhibitors promoting their patient engagement tools and there were also several presentations that contained suggestions for better engaging patients.
Patient Safety and Access Improvements, but Disparities Remain
By Richard Kronick, Ph.D. – Today, more Americans than before get safer care, more effective treatments for their illnesses, and better access to care, a new report from AHRQ finds.
No Benefits to a Delay
Although no ICD-10 delay was included in the recently-enacted Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) reform legislation, some physicians continue to suggest there should be another delay. These words of Mark Twain seem like an apt description of the ICD-10 transition: “Never put off till tomorrow what may be done day after tomorrow just as well.”
Providing Timely Patient Access to High-Quality, Safe and Effective Medical Devices
By Jeffrey Shuren – We know that patients with life-threatening or irreversibly debilitating conditions lack treatment and diagnostic options. For these patients, earlier access to promising new devices is critically important. At the same time, delayed access may mean the difference between life and death, or may result in irreversible disability.