Providers have for years been challenged to increase productivity and throughput, even as their case-mix increases. Patients are frustrated by the results of these trends, which include diminished quality and effectiveness of their encounters with physicians. All too often, patients forget to share important information...

De-identified patient data is health information from a medical record that has been stripped of all “direct identifiers”—that is, all information that can be used to identify the patient from whose medical record the health information was derived. According to the Health Insurance Portability and...

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) contained a portion (Title XIII of Division A), referred to as HITECH, that is intended to support a broad effort to accelerate the adoption of Health IT and utilization of qualified Electronic Health Records (EHRs).

Over the past few weeks, since the ONC released its recommendations to CMS concerning Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records (EHRs), as well as the Initial Set of Standards and Certification, we have been blogging on a variety of implications these rules have on physician...

Ever since the ONC made its recommendations to CMS for Meaningful Use and Certification of Electronic Health Records EHRs, we have been commenting on several aspects of the 25 criteria categories needed to be eligible for HITECH incentives starting in 2011. We have commented on...