Hiring an IT consultant requires a different approach compared to the hiring of a full or part-time employee. An IT consultant is generally brought in to complete a specific task in an area in which he/she has domain expertise. They are generally expensive resources and as a result it is important to find the right…

During the 2012 ACP annual meeting in New Orleans, I had an opportunity to field and respond to member questions on health IT. A selection of most frequently asked questions and answers are provided for your reference below. EHR Selection I have tried to purchase an EHR system but none of the vendors are returning…

EHR adoption is climbing as a result of national policies designed to encourage widespread use of Health IT such as the HITECH Act. However, adoption is not consistent across all specialties, geographies, and practice sizes — as was recently pointed out in an April 24, 2012, Health Affairs article published online by Decker, Jamoom and…

In the past few years, the prevalence of cloud-based applications in healthcare has expanded rapidly. But, what is cloud computing and how does it apply to the medical practice and EHRs? For practical purposes, cloud computing describes a situation in which the software you are using and applicable data is accessed via the Internet instead…

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…

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…