M.L. Baker

SAN FRANCISCO—Physicians use outmoded procedures to treat and monitor chronic conditions. Thats according to Sophia Chang, director of the Chronic Disease Care Program at the California HealthCare Foundation, who addressed attendees at a conference Thursday on improving chronic disease care. Once evidence has shown a treatment to be effective, it takes 17 years to become […]

Computer-generated standing orders are more effective than computer-generated reminders for physicians, at least for making sure that patients receive influenza and pneumonia vaccinations as recommended by current guidelines. Thats the conclusion of a study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Its a sure bet” that standing orders—that is, default treatment instructions […]

Twenty-one vendors of EHRs (electronic health records) have banded together to figure out how to make systems interoperable and to encourage physicians, particularly in ambulatory settings, to adopt the technology. The associations greatest potential is to “remove impediments that currently sit in front of customers,” said Jonathan Javitt, chairman of the health subcommittee of the […]

Epocrates Inc. on Monday announced that its Essentials suite of popular clinical reference applications is now available for Pocket PC devices. According to the company, more than one million health care providers have downloaded Epocrates software, and more than 420,000 update it regularly. The software allows physicians to look up dosing information and contraindication on […]

The solution to health IT problems is not in silicon but in accounting ledgers. The CEO of Wellpoint Health Networks Inc., Leonard Schaeffer, recently described his companys attempt to give away $42 million in hardware, software and support. To many physicians, he said, free was simply not cheap enough. Just under three in four took […]

An expert analysis, conducted in part by the national health IT czar, says new policy and a better business case will be necessary to sustain the adoption of health IT in physician practices. “The current business case for the adoption of health IT systems is not sufficient,” said a statement from the Markle Foundation, which […]

While very few practices have fully implemented electronic health records, a majority of health executives feel they will have a positive financial impact over the long term, according to a new report by Capgemini Health Practice. The survey also found support for the government taking a more active role in coordinating integration efforts. Capgemini researched […]

Attendees of last weekends Health Information Technology Summit contacted by eWEEK.com said they came away convinced that efforts to implement widespread health IT are getting off to a solid start. They also agreed on some chief barriers to implementing health IT: misaligned financial incentives and a lack of integrated, easy-to-use products. More than 800 people […]

Teranode Corp., an informatics software company in Seattle, launched updated versions of software and new equipment on Monday, promising to tear down data silos and help companies turn data into information. Most life sciences companies use a hodgepodge of spreadsheets and other applications to store data, said Matthew Shanahan, Teranodes chief marketing officer. Typically, these […]

Call me a cynic, but I dont think a rice-sized RFID chip above my elbow is going to save my life, or anyone elses. At least not anytime soon. The system comes from Applied Digital Solutions and three publications put the Food and Drug Administrations approval of this device on their front pages, packed with […]

Congress has charged a new commission with developing a plan to make health care IT systems work together. President Bush last week appointed Scott Wallace, head of the National Alliance for Health Information Technology, to chair the commission. eWEEK.com spoke with Wallace as he headed out to Washington, D.C., for the commissions first meeting. The […]

How does a field define its essence, when being interdisciplinary is essential? Could doing so make it less powerful? Those are central questions for informatics, the art of using information and information technology to uncover relationships and to optimize decisions. “Its not really just about technology; its about how people use information and how they […]