Practice Technology

Understand what to look for in a license agreement with an electronic health record vendor.

Know what to ask when interviewing someone for tech support.

If you've adopted electronic health records (EHRs), you can now take the next step toward receiving Medicare's EHR incentive payments.

A majority of medical groups stated that critical software upgrades to comply with new patient privacy standards have not been made and testing with health plans has not been scheduled.

Is your practice using social media? Twenty percent of your patients may be doing so, and social media may be a way that you can reach them?and others.

Your patients belonging to a racial or ethnic minority, and those with the lowest annual incomes, may be less likely than others to adopt personal health records (PHRs), according to the results of research, titled ?The digital divide in adoption and use of a [PHR],? published in the March 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Where does your group stand in transitioning to the new Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Version 5010 electronic standards? If you?re like the majority of respondents to a recent Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) survey, it?s facing significant challenges in this effort.

A well-designed automated patient identification and outreach program can motivate those who have gaps in care to have their treatment needs addressed, according to a peer-reviewed paper published in Population Health Management.

Are you or any of your patients among the 5 million people who, according to a new white paper from accounting firm Kaufman, Rossin & Co., have been affected in the 166 incidents of data breaches since September 2009?

If you want your practice to reap benefits from electronic health records (EHRs), computerized provider order entry, and clinical decision-support systems, it?ll take strong leadership and staff ?buy-in.? So conclude researchers from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (HIT) after reviewing 154 recent studies on the topic.

You and your patients have a new non-government resource for information related to the Affordable Care Act, thanks to a new Web site launched by a coalition that includes the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Physicians, the American Medical Association, and five other organizations.

As a physician practicing family, or internal medicine, you are more likely than your colleagues in pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, psychiatry, or other medical specialties to quality for Medicare- or Medicaid-related incentives for achieving ?meaningful use? of electronic health records (EHRs). That?s the finding of an analysis of federal survey data by Brian K. Bruen, lead research scientist in the Department of Health Policy in the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, Washington, DC, and colleagues.

If your patient population is similar to the pool of those responding to a recent survey, you?ll want to consider adding a secure online communication tool to your practice to allow patients to obtain lab results, request appointments, pay medical bills, and communicate with your offices?if you haven?t done so already.

If your practice is on the small side and plans to implement an electronic health record (EHR) system soon, an analysis of 26 primary care practices?each ranging from two to 12 physicians?in the Dallas, Texas, area may provide some insights into the financial and nonfinancial costs you?ll incur.

Seventy-three percent of Americans surveyed would use a secure online communication service to make it easier to get lab results, request appointments, pay medical bills, and communicate with their doctors' offices.

Learn how to handle the decision to buy an electronic health records system.

Are you ready to deal with the vast amount of information available to your patients in just seconds, thanks to technology?

Author recalls the "go-live" day for his practice's electronic health records system.

The Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) says that its 2011 annual meeting--held February 20 to 24 in Orlando, Florida--drew a record 31,225 attendees, including 14,639 professionals who registered.

Confirming what you already may have suspected, results of the 22nd annual Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Leadership Survey suggest that federal government initiatives are the driving force behind current healthcare information technology (IT) spending.

Learn how real-time data access, auditing, and reporting can help you quickly assess the health of your patients with diabetes by reading how Southeast Texas Medical Associates (SETMA) used an electronic health record system toward this end.

Only 14% of patients get their medical records electronically from their physician?s offices, and 30% don?t know why they would need to do so, finds a new report by the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Health Research Institute. The finding has implications for you and your peers in practices and organizations that hope to reap federal stimulus payments.

How do your top concerns related to health information technology compare with the priorities identified by the ?Call for Action? for 2011/2012 recently released the Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)?

Your patients who have diabetes ultimately may benefit from research to be undertaken at five U.S. institutions as they share $1.3 million in grants as part of the McKesson Foundation?s Mobilizing for Health initiative. The investigators will study ways in which the use of mobile phone technology can improve diabetes care and management in underserved populations.

The author's first step into beginning the journey into the new world of the electronic health record was to buy Windows for Dummies.

More than 21,000 providers registered for the Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record incentive programs in January, and four states reported initial Medicaid incentive payments totaling $20.4 million.

Bernd Wollschlaeger, MD, has always sought a unique path in life; the same holds true for his career path in medicine.

How can you prepare your practice for meaningful use of electronic health records?

The real healthcare reform revolution is happening under the radar of media and politics.

If the emails we receive are any indication, many physicians will say they don't need a study to tell them that the benefits of digital technology designed to improve the quality and safety of healthcare have yet to be proven by empirical evidence, but that's exactly what research published in PLoS Medicine, an online open-access journal published by the Public Library of Science, has found.