A consortium of nine companies in the healthcare industry, including hospital-chain HCA Inc., are banding together to create a set of security practices to better protect the information in electronic medical records. The security standards are expected to be finalized by the end of 2008.
Revolution Health Network has invested in two new Web sites, a move that continues its effort to challenge WebMD. Revolution said it acquired a site devoted to patients with chronic conditions, and invested in another which offers diet ideas, exercise plans and advice.
Massachusetts health officials say the state is in danger of losing its lead in implementing electronic medical records and needs to quickly decide how to pay for the new systems and what role government should play. The officials are scheduled to attend a conference, hosted by the Massachusetts Health Policy Forum that will explore ways to apply lessons learned from the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative.
The Healthcare Supply Chain Standards Coalition, a collaborative of organizations representing the healthcare supply chain, announced that Owens & Minor, Inc. (Richmond, Va.) and Cardinal Health (Dublin, Ohio) are the newest companies to join. The group seeks to enable the efficient delivery of quality patient care through the adoption of industry data standards. It has now has 28 members.
"The participation of these two leading companies is instrumental to the continued success of the standards movement in the healthcare supply chain," said Joseph Dudas, chair of the Standards Coalition and Mayo Clinic's director of accounting and supply chain informatics. "Success for this initiative is contingent upon all partners in the healthcare supply chain embracing and adopting a unified set of globally accepted standards."
Hospitals increasingly want all their technology--medical innovations as well as health-IT--from a single vendor, says Erich Reinhardt, president and CEO of Siemens Medical Solutions.
The National Cancer Institute's online risk calculator, a widely used tool for predicting a woman's risk of breast cancer, is being updated to better reflect the risks for black women.