Not everyone is unconditionally embracing the Stage 2 Meaningful Use delay announcement issued last month by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

While much of the reaction has been positive, one industry watcher believes that the delay, while good for implementers and some vendors, puts the brakes on market forces that would otherwise snuff out some of the Johnny-come-lately EMR products that have emerged, particularly in the ambulatory market.

Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) Head Farzad Mostashari, MD turned up the heat on the HIT Standards Committee, urging members to quickly and decisively move forward on standards that are “good enough” to begin the widespread exchange of health information.

Successfully exchanging health information at the local, regional, statewide or federal level takes a multi-product, multi-tiered approach based upon an assessment of an HIE’s needs. That’s the consensus of five health information exchange leaders, representing both established and early stage HIEs, who spoke at a recent HIE Leader Roundtable discussion sponsored by that National eHealth
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The Rhode Island Quality Institute (RIQI) announced the launch of the nation’s first statewide Direct Adoption project earlier this month.    RIQI’s Regional Extension Center is the first of the 62 RECs  to create a program focused on helping providers understand and adopt Direct Messaging, a simple, secure and cost-effective way for sending patients’ protected health
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A safety net clinic is making Personal Health Records (PHR) available to its diabetic patients, helping them to better manage their care. Fort Wayne, IN-based NoMoreClipboard recently announced its partnership with Volunteers in Medicine (VIM) of Monroe County, a free medical clinic in Indiana for adults without health insurance.  The partnership will make PHRs available
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While most people agree that engaging patients in their healthcare decisions is a good thing, providers often walk a tightrope between communicating the appropriate information at the appropriate time and patients’ right to their health information.

A consumer-mediated health information exchange (CMHIE) project for cancer patients in Georgia hopes to provide some clear guidance for providers seeking the proper balance.

eHealthConnecticut exchanged its first set of clinical data in January, placing the health information exchange in an elite group of operational HIEs. eHealthConnecticut’s achievement is particularly unique as the organization employs open source software to power the exchange.

Verizon announced one of the first successful pilots highlighting the integration of the ‘Direct Project’ and ‘NHIN Connect’ initiatives spearheaded by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Verizon, working with health information technology provider MEDfx, has implemented a pilot program for diabetes care management with MedVirginia/CenVaNet and Dominion Medical Associates, showing
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Verizon and MEDfx have successfully implemented a pilot program enabling health care providers that still use paper records to easily convert them to a digital format and share them with other authorized providers. The program addresses long-standing issues that have blocked the widespread adoption of electronic health care records: the complexity and expense that health
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Reinventing the wheel every time it wanted to exchange health information wasn’t cost-effective or efficient for the Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC).  So when leaders at the Minneapolis, MN-based health system were approached by ABILITY (formerly VisionShare) to participate in a Direct Project pilot, they saw a way to streamline their efforts. “The exciting thing
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