The inaugural Federal Health IT Strategic Plan was released in 2011, and since then over 450,000 eligible professionals and 4,800 eligible hospitals have received an incentive payment for participation in the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs. This progress has taken a tremendous effort on behalf of hospitals and health care providers, as…

Over the past 4 years, there has been a major shift in the world of healthcare. The medical community has had greater influence from the government, insurance companies, lawyers, and like the rest of our society, an overarching increase in digital technology. Thus, the emergence of mainstream electronic health records (EHRs). People in present day…

One of the single biggest complaints that we hear from Physicians when referring to their EHR system is how computers take away from the personal side of patient care. All too often docs are now forced to dig through various screens, and drop down menus while they type in copious amounts of data during patient…

Guest Editorial by Benjamin Shibata If you want to give hospital clinicians severe heart burn or an arrhythmia, talk to them about implementing a new state-of-the-art electronic health record (EHR) system.  Although EHRs may seem like an intuitive improvement over paper health records, the transition has been a huge headache because the process is being…

The University of Health Sciences Berkley has developed an interesting graphic on the Data of Health Care, exploring the health data revolution, the difference between Electronic Medical Records and EHRs, which states and practices adopted electronic systems, and what the future of the digital health industry could look like. Click here to view

Over the past week, AmericanEHR has received hundreds of EHR ratings and comments from physicians across the US as part of a survey that we are conducting with the American Medical Association. Having both used an EHR for many years as well as going through a recent implementation in an Addiction Medicine practice, I have…

Apple has made their long awaited plunge into digital health with HealthKit, an iOS 8 bundled app which was unveiled at the World Wide Developer Conference of 2014. HealthKit is designed to help users keep better track of their personal and fitness data. HealthKit provides a single place to store and profile health data across multiple…

Since 2009, there has been a significant national effort to encourage the adoption and use of EHRs. A significant number of medical practitioners are now using EHRs which have had financial impacts on practices as well as effects on productivity, clinician satisfaction and patient outcomes. In response to the need for credible information organized and…

Last month, ONC released a series of guides to help promote safe EHR practices. Nine guides, collectively referred to as, “Safety Assurance Factors for EHR Resilience” or SAFER Guides cover several important topics. The introductory video explains the rationale behind developing the guides. The SAFER Guides are self-assessment tools to help guide your practice to…

As of September 25, 2013, the list of EHR products certified for Meaningful Use Stage 2 is quite limited. Seventeen Ambulatory EHR products have been certified for Base EHR; of these, only five ambulatory products have been certified for recommended adult core CQMs for Eligible Providers. In a September 25 article in Modern Healthcare, Joseph…

Instead of a blog, Written one word at a time, I offer these MU observations, Written in rhyme. While I tried to be thorough, There’s much more I could say. For now this is it… Until another day. On the March Towards MU Stage 2 The day we have dreaded, Is where we are headed….