New developments
A lot has happened in the area of connectivity since I last posted, some of which you probably know, some of which hopefully will be news to you as you read this.
- The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society and 21 technology companies have launched the HIMSS EHR Vendor Association, to promote adoption of clinical IT and work toward inter-vendor connectivity in the industry. Participants include: A4 Health Systems, Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Cerner, Companion Technologies, Eclipsys
e-MDs, Epic Systems, GE Healthcare, GEMMS (maker of a cardiology-specific EHR), Greenway Medical Technologies, IDX Systems, target=” new”iMedica, McKesson Provider Technologies, MediNotes, Misys Healthcare Systems, NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, Physician Micro Systems, PowerMed, Siemens Medical Solutions, DOCS Inc. (SOAPware) and WebMD Practice Services.
- The Department of Veterans Affairs (NOT the “Veterans Administration,” as some people still say, even though the name was changed in 1989) has launched its long-awaited personal health record as part of the year-old My HealtheVet portal. I’m interested in seeing the registration numbers after the first six months.
- In Canada, patient safety advocate Ross Baker of the University of Toronto is proposing that the province of Alberta — which already leads the nation in terms of healthcare connectivity — to establish a state-of-the-art hospital as a model for error prevention, according to a recent story in Canadian Healthcare Technology.
I have submitted a story for the January edition of that publication’s new Technology for Doctors supplement.
I’ll see you in a couple of weeks at the annual Radiological Society of North America meeting here in Chicago.