On the final day of the HIMSS12 conference in Las Vegas, NV I had an opportunity to interview Thom Kuhn, Sr. Systems Architect, ACP. This is a summary of our discussion regarding his personal observations of the conference. AB: Thom, did you attend any sessions at HIMSS that stand out as particularly important with respect…

The following slide deck was presented on behalf of HL7 at the HIMSS12 conference in Las Vegas, NV – February 23, 2012. Presenters: Thomson Kuhn, Sr. Systems Architect, ACP Alan Brookstone MD, CEO Cientis Technologies

CMS just posted the notice of proposed rule making (NPRM) for Meaningful Use Stage 2. Here is the link to the fact sheet; here is the link to the full document (455 pages). More to follow.

Information Week, February 22, 2012. The annual HIMSS conference provided the venue for a preliminary walk through of the proposed Stage 2 Meaningful Use regulations by the national coordinator for health IT, Dr. Farzad Mostashari. According to Mostashari, eligible providers will have to comply with 17 core requirements (up from 15 in Stage 1) and…

We are very pleased to announce the winner of the draw for an iPad2 in the recent ACS AmericanEHR Partners EHR satisfaction survey, Dr. Stephen D Leonard, MD, FACS. Dr. Leonard is a General Surgeon in Atlanta, GA.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released the January payment update to the EHR Incentive Program through January 2012. Here are some data from the EHR Incentive Payment Summary for January 2012. Medicare Data 22,937 Eligible Professionals (EP) received incentive payments $412,866,000 distributed Average per EP = $18,000 Top 4 Specialties: Family Medicine –…

Due to the interactive and real-time nature of an EHR, clinicians have a number of powerful tools at their fingertips that can be used to provide clinical guidance to patients and encourage healthy changes in behavior. With the advent of patient portals, personal health records, and mobile apps, there are now a number of additional…

Several news items surfaced yesterday (February 14, 2012) referencing comments made by acting CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner during the American Medical Association’s National Advocacy Conference. HealthIT News covered it here; Modern Healthcare here; and iHealthBeat here. Most of the commentary has been that CMS can only delay the implementation and that it is extremely unlikely…

Guest Editorial David W. Bates, MD, MSC is the Chief Quality Officer, and Chief, Division of General Internal Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA. The Medical Home is one of the most exciting developments in care redesign in some time. Although the concept was initially developed many years ago in pediatrics, it is just…

Beginning on March 1, 2012, CMS will open an Appeals Portal for Eligible Professionals participating in the EHR Incentive program. (The portal for Eligible Hospitals is slated to be up by June 1, 2012.) Until such time as the Appeals Portal is up, the guidance available is here. According to this document, the types of…

As practices move towards the integration of more information in their EHR systems, a question that frequently comes up is how much information should be incorporated from imaging and radiology studies. This information is usually available in three primary formats: A narrative report received either as a faxed document or scanned into a commonly used…