EMR Industry News


Government Initiatives

Fast Talk: Bush's Record Collector
Fast Company, January 18, 2008
Dr. Robert Kolodner, 59, advises HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt on health IT initiatives and oversees the federal government's efforts to get doctors, hospitals, and medical providers nationwide to adopt electronic medical records by 2014.

Surprise HIPAA Audit
Advance Web, January 2008
Health care providers must broadly trust their caregivers to perform the jobs necessary for patient care by giving them open access. But, care providers must continuously monitor and audit for common privacy and security breaches or verify appropriateness of access. This is for the sake of patient privacy, and with the specter of medical identity theft - patient safety.

Electronic Health Record goes political in US
Insimix, Jaanuary 13, 2008
Speaking to the New Hampshire voters Hillary Clinton supported electronic medical records (EHR in Canada) as a way to cut cost and improve the quality of health care. Does in mean that the electronic medical record concept is reaching a tipping point after years of discussions, and we will finally see significant progress?

Government Initiatives Archives: 2007 / 2006 / 2005


ePrescribing

Allscripts Ranked No. 1 in Electronic Prescribing for 2007
PR Newswire,January 15, 2008
Allscripts, the leading provider of clinical software, connectivity and information solutions that physicians use to improve healthcare, announced today that it transmitted more electronic prescriptions in 2007 over the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange(TM) than any other e-prescribing vendor.

Experts say e-prescribing will be first and hottest HIT issue in 2008
Healthcare IT News, January 14, 2008
"Americans are ready for e-prescribing," said former speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, the founder of the Center for Health Transformation. "With Americans using ATM cards everyday in this country and abroad, we believe they are prepared for the massive benefits provided by an electronic prescriptions system."

RxHub Reaches Unprecedented ePrescribing Milestone
Trading Markets, January 10, 2008
A study conducted by the Gorman Group in 2007 found that approximately 70% of the safety and savings advantages of ePrescribing resulted from doctors being given immediate access to patient level medication histories, safety alerts, and preferred drug options before prescriptions are electronically transmitted to pharmacies.

ePrescribing Archives: 2007 / 2006 / 2005


General Industry Articles

Out With Paper, in with PCs
Concord Monitor, January 20, 2008
At the heart of that effort is the electronic medical record, a digital replacement for the medical chart that's touted in the health care plans of nearly every presidential candidate and championed by President Bush. Electronic medical records have tremendous potential to transform the way medicine is delivered, by eliminating errors, preventing lost data, enabling improved medical research and ensuring more patients get appropriate care, their proponents say.

New Project will Slash Costs of Electronic Medical Records
ITBusiness.ca, January 17, 2008
"Literally, just the data collection of the current episode was always a problem [when we used paper medical records]," Karson says. "You'd spend a lot of time just finding things. Now you can go to just one place."

Nightingale signs a three-year agreement with the Medical Society of the State of New York
PRNewswire-FirstCall January 16, 2008
"This agreement is further validation of our leading edge technology and market position. We believe that our EMR product can achieve the same level of success and market leadership in the New York market as it has in other parts of North America," said Sam Chebib, President and CEO of Nightingale.

General Industry Archives: 2007 / 2006 / 2005


Grants and Other Financial Incentives to Physicians

Electronic Medical Records Vs Insurance Companies
Impact Lab, January 13, 2008
Health insurance coverage is a major concern for many Americans and a major issue for the US presidential candidates this year. Electronic medical records (EMRs)—also known as electronic health records (EHRs) or personal health records (PHRs)—are a big part of many proposed plans to cut costs and streamline delivery of healthcare. While acceptance of EMRs is growing, Americans and their physicians still have some reservations.

MedLink Acquires 100% of Anywhere MD
Marketwire, January 9, 2008
"This acquisition makes good business sense. Bringing Anywhere MD into the MedLink family will result in greater operating efficiencies and significant cost savings through elimination of redundancies," said Ray Vuono CEO of MedLink International, Inc. "In addition, Anywhere MD will be able to expand into markets where MedLink is established and vice versa. In the very near future Anywhere MD will be relocating to new offices in Atascadero, California and will begin training new personnel at MedLink's corporate headquarters in New York."

Hometown Health gets $100,000 Grant
Times Union, January 9, 2008
Hometown Health, which serves 22,000 under-served and uninsured patients in and around Schenectady County, has now raised about half of the $1 million it needs to buy all the equipment, software and training it would need to get the system going.

Grants and Other Financial Archives: 2007 / 2006 / 2005


Health Information Technology

HIT Definitions Project Announces Public Forums
Medical News TODAY January 17, 2008
...The National Alliance for Health Information Technology (Alliance), with the guidance and management of BearingPoint Inc. (NYSE: BE), one of the world's largest management and technology consulting firms, will hold public forums to gather industry input during the annual meeting of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) in Orlando, Florida.

Dr. Bart Harmon Named Chief Medical Officer for Harris Corporation's Healthcare Solutions Business
PR Newswire, January 16, 2008
Harris Healthcare Solutions is delivering enterprise intelligence solutions to private and military healthcare clients by leveraging the company's leadership in assured communications(R) and information technology (IT), including an extensive portfolio of digital content management and visualization products for commercial and government healthcare markets.

State and local health IT spending to hit $10.8 billion in 2012
Government Health IT, January 15, 2008
“We think that indicates the CMS has turned a corner in a pretty sudden and visible way towards health IT being almost synonymous with what they’re looking for in the way of Medicaid transformation,” Dixon said.

Health Information Technology Archives: 2007 / 2006 / 2005


International

Gauten Health "Smart Card System" to Boost Service
BuaNews Online (press release). January 18, 2008
"These cards will also contain the medical history of the patient to enable doctors and professionals to make faster diagnoses. This will further enable care-givers to call up the Electronic Health Record of the individual," said Ms Mngadi.

TELUS Announces Successful Acquisition of Emergis
CNNMoney, January 17, 2008
We look forward to helping lead the transformation of healthcare in Canada by providing advanced electronic health record, claims processing and pharmacy solutions. In addition, Emergis' strong suite of financial services solutions complements TELUS' strength in the financial services sector."

Medicare to Develope Identifier Service
The Age, January 12, 2008
"This project is a significant collaboration between state and federal governments to provide the building blocks for Australia's e-health future," Senator Ludwig said.

International Archives: 2007 / 2006 / 2005


Medical Transcription

Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin Teams with Heartland and Improves Turnaround Times
PR.com January 19, 2008
Then Children’s teamed up with Heartland Information Services (www.heartlandis.com), a medical transcription company headquartered in Toledo, OH. The teamwork between the two companies has since raised the bar for best practices while continuing to push for improvement in different areas of the business.

Transcend Services Announces Date for Fourth Quarter Earnings Release and Conference Call
Centredaily.com, January 18, 2008
To this end, the Company has created Internet-based, speech-recognition enabled, voice-to-text systems that allow its skilled medical language specialists to securely and quickly produce the highest quality medical documents. The Company's wide range of transcription and editing services encompass everything needed to securely receive, type, edit, format and distribute electronic copies of physician-dictated medical documents, from overflow projects to complete transcription outsourcing.

New Benefactors Show Support for CDA4CDT:
Earthtimes,January 17, 2008
"Expanding CDA4CDT beyond dictation/transcription is a natural progression", says Donald T. Mon, PhD, vice president, practice leadership, AHIMA. "The addition of vendors representing all aspects of document generation and management will speed EHR adoption by making more information available for patient safety, quality, and all the other benefits we expect from the EHR."

Medical Transcription Archives: 2007 / 2006 / 2005


Specific Company Information-Financial Orientation

EMR Software Provider Offers Medical Billing Solutions
Free Press Releases, January 18, 2007
It not only helps make any office more efficient, but it also helps to increase revenue. A medical office or billing company of any size or specialty will enjoy the improved communication with patients, improved collections, insurance carrier analysis, improved workflow, better billing, and employee accountability features this software offers. EncounterManager is arguably the most advanced, versatile medical billing software available.

Emerson Electric's 400 mln usd senior notes due 2018 rated 'A2' - Moody's
CNNMoney, January 11, 2008
Moody's said its 'A2' senior long-term and 'P-1' short-term debt ratings reflect the company's leading market position, product and business line diversification and profitable operating performance with sizeable cash flow generation and cash balances.

Health center to implement electronic records system
Harlem Valley Times, January 10, 2008
Hudson River HealthCare recently announced it signed a $1 million agreement to begin using eClinicalWorks, an electronic medical record and practice management system at its health centers

Financial Orientation Archives: 2007 / 2006 / 2005


Specific Company Information-Product Orientation

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center introduces 'smart rooms'
Healthcare IT News, January 16, 2008
Building upon the health system's extensive electronic medical records technology and using readily available hardware, the smart room is designed to fit seamlessly into the daily processes of caring for patients.

Paramedics get a high-tech boost
HeraldNet, January 14, 2008
Other fire districts around the county likely will adopt the electronic records in the next few years, said Dr. Ron Brown, medical program director for Snohomish County EMS.

Greenway Medical Technologies' EHR Solution, PrimeSuite, Awarded 'Best In KLAS' in the Ambulatory EMR Category for Practices of Between Six and 25 Physicians
PR Newswire, January 7, 2008
PrimeSuite is a key component to Greenway's integrated physician's infrastructure providing single-database EHR, practice management and interoperability functionality. Greenway's integrated physician's infrastructure helps organizations reduce costs by optimizing point-of-care documentation, personal health records, quality reporting and clinical research.

Product Orientation Archives: 2007 / 2006 / 2005


Voice Recognition

New Ways to Say 'hands free'
Boston Globe, January 20, 2008
When it comes to controlling a mobile phone, car stereo, desktop PC, or GPS device by voice alone, software from Nuance Communications Inc. is fast becoming the equivalent of Intel Inside.In terms of the breadth of its products, and the number of employees it has dedicated to speech recognition, Nuance looms over its bigger rivals, IBM Corp. and Microsoft Corp.

Dragon Speech Recognition Comes to the Mac
ZDnet Blogs, January 17, 2008.
MacSpeech, the longtime maker of iListen and other speech recognition products on the Mac side, will license the Dragon NaturallySpeaking engine from Nuance Communications.

Launches the Perfect Digital Dictation Device
Taxi Design, January 2008
Designed with more than dictation in mind, the UX70 and UX80 also offer MP3 stereo recording and playback so users can record and listen to music on the move. Stereo recording is captured via the built-in microphone and the MP3 format is easily transferred to your PC by ‘Drag and drop’ functionality, without the need for additional software.

Voice Recognition Archives: 2007 / 2006 / 2005


Miscellaneous

Standard Register And MedAssets Supply Chain Systems Sign Agreement To Assist Hospitals In Making A Smooth Transition To Electronic Medical Records
Supply Chain Market, January 14, 2008
The need for EMR readiness services was underlined in a study conducted by the Boston-based Medical Records Institute between May and July 2007. In this annual survey, which gauges attitudes and opinions about healthcare information technology (IT), 52 percent of respondents said that improving clinical processes and workflow efficiency was a top strategic priority in IT.

CBaySystems and M*Modal Enter Strategic Partnership
PR Newswire, January 14, 2008
M*Modal's advanced speech understanding technology will enhance the speed, efficiency and quality of CBay's medical transcription service

Standard Register and MedAssets(R) Supply Chain Systems Sign Agreement to Assist Hospitals in Making a Smooth Transition to Electronic Medical Records
Centre Daily Times, January 11, 2008
"EMR offers healthcare providers the means to improve the quality of care while significantly reducing costs and shortening the revenue cycle," said Terrilynn Cunningham, Vice President of Executive Services for MedAssets Supply Chain Systems. "By collaborating with Standard Register, we can help clients build a solid foundation for EMR and realize the full benefits from their technology investments more quickly."

Miscellaneous Archives: 2007 / 2006 / 2005