One of the biggest hurdles the healthcare industry has faced in its march toward increased efficiency is interoperability – interoperability in sharing patient data between provider offices and hospitals and interoperability in tying together related services required for patient care. Read More »

The chief technology office of Health and Human Services, Todd Park, is fond of using the National Ocean and Oceanographic Association (NOAA) as a metaphor for the innovation that may be unlocked through releasing public data. NOAA data underpins Weather.com and nearly every commercial meteorological service in the United States. Read More »

At least 70 vendors have invited me to meet with them at the upcoming conference (Feb. 20-24) in Orlando of the Health Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS)....

Health information exchanges and interoperability are hotter than ever, and a number of vendors will be showing how well they can exchange data at HIMSS' Interoperability Showcase on the exhibit floor. In fact, this is one of health IT guru John Halamka's top picks for the HIMSS conference.

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With budget cutting the buzzword of the day, Department of Veterans Affairs information technology projects nonetheless received healthy increases in funding in the proposed fiscal year 2012 federal government budget released Feb. 14.

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Under the leadership of US CIO, Vivek Kundra, the US government has decided to go full bore into the Cloud with what Kundra has termed a “Cloud First Policy.” Yet many private-sector IT Pros still don’t trust the Cloud in theory or practice. Read More »

The Health and Human Services Department’s open-source Direct Project development program for secure health data exchange over the Internet has started operating in two states, Minnesota and Rhode Island, and will launch demonstration projects in six more states, officials have announced. Read More »

The potential for private enterprise to provision services using open data from the Community Health Data Initiative could match the billions of dollars made when the government unlocked GPS and NOAA weather data....

Sebelius delivered her remarks to both an online audience at HHS.gov/open and the collection of government officials, technologists and researchers gathered at the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Science. Her speech is embedded below. Read More »

Healthcare organizations face constant pressure to reduce costs and, like most organizations, they are typically looking for these cost-reduction opportunities within expensive IT infrastructures.

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...[Fort Wayne-based NoMoreClipboard] has been named the lead contractor on a $1.25 million grant from the federal Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. The grant was made to Indiana Health Information Technology Inc., a not-for-profit group coordinating statewide efforts to expand the use of electronic health records.

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Where’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CIO John Halamka going to spend his time at HIMSS11 in Orlando? He’ll be heading to the Interoperability Showcase, Halamka, co-chair of the HIT Standards Committee, told Health Data Management. “I’ve heard that ONC will take up a good portion of space in the Interoperability Showcase and the Direct Project will be demonstrated in the Live Exchange area.” Read More »