M.L. Baker

STANFORD, Calif.—Developing standards for describing biological data may not be glamorous, but the lack of standards undermines researchers productivity, said one researcher at the first meeting of the Bioinformatics Standards Committee here on Thursday. “I want to know what the fields mean and I want to know that everybody else has the same concept of […]

Physicians are taking a time-will-tell approach to a new industry consortium dedicated to accelerating electronic prescribing. Nine well-recognized entities, including high-tech and e-prescribing companies, announced Tuesday that they had banded together to educate physicians and health care payers about successful strategies in e-prescribing and its potential to improve health care. The group, which calls itself […]

In May, I exulted that some 90 percent of hospitals had signed up voluntarily to share safety data. This month, I can cheer that some 95 percent of eligible hospitals have done so. By 2005, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, plan to launch a Web site for consumers, and some of […]

Buffalo, N.Y.-based health care provider Catholic Health System last week announced a 10-year, $100 million agreement with Siemens Medical Solutions for medical imaging and information systems, with Siemens, of Melvern, Pa., guaranteeing to update the systems throughout the length of the deal. Jeff Baughan, vice president of information technology for CHS, said the agreement provides […]

While experts strongly disagree on the methodology of a new study that puts the number of deaths from medical errors at nearly 200,000, their views are surprisingly in harmony on the scope of the problem—and the solution. Health Grades Inc. released its estimate of error-related deaths last week, nearly doubling a 1999 estimate from the […]

A new report doubles the current estimate of deaths due to preventable medical errors—to 195,000—and concludes that IT would not address the causes of the deaths. The oft-cited figure of 98,000 deaths per year comes from a report by the Institute of Medicine published in 1999. The newer report uses a collection of PSIs (patient […]

Women unlikely to carry certain cancer mutations may be able to get the information they need from a computer interface, but the flesh-and-blood type are more effective at helping women understand their risk of getting cancer. Such are the conclusions by researchers from the Penn State College of Medicine, whose study is being published in […]

Mark McClellan, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said CMS will likely require “an initial set of well-established standards” by January 2006, when Medicare begins covering prescription drugs. Although physicians would not be required to use the standards until 2009, McClellan said the move would encourage adoption by making electronic prescribing more […]

In an effort that should let FDA experts spend more time analyzing data and less time reformatting it, the FDA on Wednesday announced a new standard that drug sponsors can use to submit data from clinical trials to the agency. The Food and Drug Administration is exploring making the standard a requirement for data submission. […]

For all of the fanfare that came with late Julys Secretarial Summit on Health IT in Washington, D.C., we are unlikely to see vast improvements in our nations health care system anytime soon. Dont get me wrong, Im a fan of electronic medical records, computerized order entry and, in general, the whole shebang. But while […]

The nonprofit group that evaluates and accredits nearly 16,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States has dropped its proposal to require the use of bar codes on drugs to prevent medication errors. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations announced its national patient safety goals and associated requirements on Tuesday, after […]

Hospitals would like to peer into the future, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is making these glimpses possible, in a sense. It has developed software programs that help hospitals and other health care agencies predict how many staff, beds and supplies a hospital will need during a flu pandemic. Though the programs […]