In the first six months of 2016, Pennsylvania healthcare facilities reported 889 medication-error events that indicated health IT as a contributing factor, according to a report from the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority. The report noted that the most frequently reported errors included dose omission, wrong dose or overdosage, and extra dose; the most commonly reported systems involved were the computerized prescriber order entry (CPOE) and the pharmacy systems...

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Although we all applaud the massive push towards electronic health records (EHRs) and the digitization of medical information, there are some very tangible cybercrime data breach threats that exist which could topple the momentum gained by the launch of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH) two and half years ago. Two recently released reports (Verizon’s Data Breach Investigations Report and FireEye’s Advanced Threat Report) suggest that the proportion of healthcare data breaches is rising fast, the largest majority targeting patient personal and payment information (including patient health and insurance data) that attackers can directly or indirectly use to make a profit...

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Information management errors in electronic health records, incorrect use of clinical decision support, and poor prescribing habits are among the most dangerous health IT hazards for 2017, according to ECRI Institute’s annual patient safety list. The repeat offenders are joined by a number of workflow and process shortfalls that can leave hospitalized patients without sufficient monitoring, lead to costly and deadly hospital-acquired infections, and open up serious behavioral health risks...

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On Monday, March 13, Healthcare Informatics Editor-in-Chief Mark Hagland interviewed two healthcare industry observers regarding current developments in federal healthcare policy. Hagland interviewed Jeremy Miller and Miranda Franco just hours before the news broke of the “scoring” of the American Health Care Act (AHCA), the healthcare legislation introduced by Republican leaders of the House of Representatives on March 6, to replace elements of the health insurance provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), passed by Congress and signed into law in March2010 by President Barack Obama...

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Although the OpenNotes initiative—designed to give patients access and ability to read visit notes online—has now reached 12 million patients in the U.S. alone, there have been challenges and pushback along the way, dating back to the beginning of the movement. In fact, says CT Lin, M.D., chief medical information officer (CMIO) at UCHealth, a 7-hospital, 400-clinic system in the Rocky Mountain region, the “original” OpenNotes was actually called “SPPARRO,” or “Systems Providing Patients Access to Records Online”...

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OpenGov had the opportunity to speak to Dr. Portia Grace Fernandez-Marcelo, Director of the UP (University of Philippines) Manila-National Telehealth Center (NTHC) about using ICT to provide equitable access to quality healthcare for all, specially in isolated and disadvantaged communities. NTHC is one of the pioneers in the Philippines developing cost-effective ICT tools and innovations for improving healthcare and deploying solutions in communities where they are required most urgently...

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Once again this year, HL7's FHIR specification was a hot topic at HIMSS17, a burning issue discussed ardently across the show floor. (Our apologies, but heat- and flame-related puns seem to be required when writing about FHIR. Thankfully, we've gotten them out of the way early.) But while many vendors were touting their embrace of the interoperability spec, and while the promise it holds for enabling faster and easier exchange of data is very real, the open API isn't going to supplant existing HL7 standards such as Version 2 and CDA any time soon...

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