The following comment was submitted by a physician because of his inability to interpret his own notes a few weeks after entering encounter information into his EHR. His experience questions the value of discrete data (such as pick lists, radio buttons, numeric values or predefined descriptions) vs. free text or narrative notes. ‘All of the…

Clinical Decision Support Systems (or CDSSs) are increasingly available through Electronic Health Records and include reminders, alerts, drug interaction checking and dose calculation systems as well as chronic disease reporting dashboards. Despite the pervasiveness of CDSSs, there is limited evidence regarding the ability of these systems to improve care and reduce costs. A systematic review…

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…

There are few opportunities that excite healthcare administrators more than the ability to lower costs and reduce utilization of services. Remote patient monitoring (RPM) is a group of technologies that minimizes costs while at the same time improves the care of patients suffering from chronic diseases. In addition, RPM has the ability to improve quality…

The rapid transition to EHR and the integration of information technology in the delivery of patient care has had a transformational impact on medical offices and hospitals. There are many positive effects of the technology, including rapid access to laboratory information, diagnostic reports, and medication histories. However, there is also a potential dark side to…

As the crocuses, daffodils, and hyacinths begin to bloom here in the Northeast, I like to think about what has contributed to the growth of these beautiful plants. We have had a very mild winter here in New England, including some record-breaking warm weather. Perhaps it was the plant fertilizer I used last fall, giving these…