Stacy Lawrence

The Department of Defense is continuing to roll out an EMR system that has been in continuous development since the late 80s. Serving almost 10 million military personnel and families, the implementation of and lessons learned from this project could provide some clues as to what lies ahead for the broader usage of electronic medical […]

Until a study was released last month in the JAMA showing that the entry of patient prescriptions by doctors into a computerized system may actually increase certain types of medication errors, this health technology system seemed like a clear-cut benefit for health care providers and their patients. But now, given the negative conclusions of the […]

Subscribing to an online service lets hospitals have a pharmacist on hand 24-by-7, even when theres not one on-site. Nearly 4,000 hospitals in the United States dont have around-the-clock pharmacy services, due largely to a persistent shortage of pharmacists thats expected to continue to worsen over the next several decades. Union Hospital in Elkton, Md., […]

Before a few years ago, biometrics company Ultra-Scan had relatively little interest in the health care sector. But as health information technology started to become a national political imperative, the company began realizing that its fingerprint-scanning technology could help with the complex issue of positive patient identification. The first rollout of its fingerprint technology in […]

At the Pharmaceutical Technology Congress this week in Philadelphia, Microsoft announced a full-scale strategy for addressing the IT needs of the pharmaceutical industry. Microsoft originally launched its health care and life sciences group ten years ago. “Microsoft has stepped up and said we think we can have impact in the pharmaceutical industry,” said Microsoft Enterprise […]

On a scale of 1 to 10, health care and pharmaceutical Web sites score a measly 5.8, according to an evaluation of more than 50 sites by research and consultancy company Consumer Research Group. But considering that a broader survey of almost 600 corporate sites averaged a 5.9 rating, maybe thats not too bad. More […]

Fewer than one in five hospital IT executives report that their organizations have fully operational electronic medical records, according to a recent survey by the HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society). And, in fact, the exact percentage of health care organizations reporting a functional EMR system actually declined slightly from last years results, from […]

About 21,000 health care IT professionals have gathered this week in Dallas for this years HIMSS conference. And the top technology companies have shown up too to appeal to this industry gathering focused on the successful integration of information technology into health care. Sun Microsystems Inc. attempted to make the biggest splash: CEO Scott McNealy […]

Early this week, IBM announced it is launching clinical data exchange software for hospitals and health care agencies. Known as WebSphere Business Integration for the Healthcare Collaborative Network, the solution is intended to help health care providers and agencies improve information integration and analysis by providing data to key stakeholders from a system, community, enterprise […]

Health services and health information technology garnered about 11 percent of venture capital investment last year, or $687 million, according to a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute. Thats up 43 percent from 2003, a much faster rate of growth than other, larger life sciences segments such as biopharmaceuticals and medical devices. Despite the […]

After a sustained pause in federal government momentum around health IT, President George W. Bush firmly took up the cause again after showing some lack of fiscal commitment late last year to the concept he had earlier championed. In the federal appropriations bill that Congress passed in November, the nine-month-old Office of the National Coordinator […]

Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies carry an unusually heavy regulatory burden. Not only are they challenged by increasing financial regulation from the Securities and Exchange Commission, such as Sarbanes Oxley, but these companies also face compliance with the industry-specific HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations. An additional industry pressure is on to meet evolving […]