electronic medical records

As many hospitals and health care centers across the U.S. switch from paper record-keeping to newer, electronic health record systems that qualify them for federal incentives, a team of physician-scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College has been tracking the transition for 19 physicians at an adult ambulatory clinic.

Nearly 4,000 prescriptions for more than 2,000 patients were tracked before the switch, 12 weeks after the switch, and a year after the switch. Researchers found that prescription errors dropped by two-thirds, from 36 percent to 12 percent a year after their physicians had switched to electronic record-keeping systems.… Read more

The adoption of electronic medical records, or EMRs, in U.S. hospitals has improved the quality of care in only one of three areas studied, and even in that area, the gains are limited, according to new research by the nonprofit Rand published this week in the American Journal of Managed Care.

Researchers analyzed the quality of care at 2,021 hospitals between 2003 and 2007 across three conditions: pneumonia, heart attack, and heart failure. The number of hospitals using either basic or advanced EMRs grew from 24 percent in 2003 to 38 percent in 2006.

Not only did the … Read more

Last week, I wrote about IBM's continued march to the cloud and the company's focus on using advanced analytical software to make better decisions faster.

This week both of these efforts are coming to light in the health care arena as Big Blue is set to announce that the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) will use advanced analytics software to cut the time required to match bone marrow donors with patients by up to 50 percent.

The NMDP estimates that as many as 10,000 patients may benefit from a transplant each year in the U.S. alone, … Read more

Medical records software developer ClearPractice has been working directly with Apple to develop Nimble, the electronic medical records (EMR) app it released this week that the company says is the first to run natively in iOS on the iPad.

Nimble incorporates throwback features from ClearPractice's software-as-a-service EMR software, which has been around since 2006 and includes scheduling, tracking inpatient rounds, prescribing meds, and reviewing/ordering lab results. But it is updated with not only an iPad-specific user interface, but a series of additional fields, such as Name, Location, Admit Date, Floor, Bed, Admission Status, and Claim Status.

To comply … Read more

Best known for its Quicken software, Intuit is moving further into the health care market through a new acquisition.

Intuit announced Tuesday that it will pay $91 million in cash to buy Medfusion, a privately-held company that sells online services to let patients and doctors' offices interact with each other electronically.

Based in Cary, N.C., MedFusion's services fill a niche in the area of patient-to-provider communications, according to the company. Its online services let patients set up appointments, fill out forms, pay bills, refill prescriptions, and receive lab results electronically. People can contact office staff or ask the … Read more

Google is moving forward in the booming health care technology market.

The search giant this week announced several new partnerships designed to expand its free Google Health service.

Google Health is the company's attempt to offer an online medical portal where you can research medical conditions and issues, find doctors and health care professionals, and track down other health-related Web sites. You can also compile and store a health profile by adding test results, names of medications, insurance information, and electronic medical records from your computer or from third-party partners.

One of Google's new partners is Surescripts, a … Read more

Symantec on Monday announced the launch of a hosting service designed to let health care providers store, archive, and share their medical records.

The company's new Symantec Health service is designed to help hospitals and health care companies offload the costs and internal resources used to house medical records. As health care firms are forced to keep more image-based files, such as lab tests, for longer retention times, their storage costs have soared, said Symantec. The Symantec Health service will offer an alternative cloud-based storage environment where companies can budget and pay only for what they need.

The service … Read more

One key component of U.S. health care reform is the move toward digital medical records. Dell is hoping to play a role in that move.

Dell announced Thursday a new service to help doctors and hospitals more easily switch to electronic medical records (EMR).

Already in use by certain hospitals, the new EMR service--a combination of hardware, software, and support--is designed to make the transition from paper to digital records more affordable and practical for the average physician or medical staff.

Dell said its EMR system will also connect doctors and their sponsoring hospitals so they can share patient … Read more

The Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs are creating a joint electronic medical record system to allow the two departments to share administrative and medical information, President Obama announced Thursday.

The Joint Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record project will track soldiers' lifelong medical histories beginning the day they enter service.

"Currently there is no comprehensive system in place that allows for a streamlined transition," Obama said. "That results in extraordinary hardship for an awful lot of veterans," such as lost records or delays in processing disability claims.

The VA is currently grappling with a … Read more