Editor's Note The House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee on September 13 approved legislation that would remove a requirement to make meaningful use standards for electronic health records (EHRs) more stringent over time, the September 13 AHA News Now reports. In a letter of support for the bill, which is…
Editor's Note Officials at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora are sending notifications to nearly 3,400 patient families about a data breach that may have compromised their health information, according to the September 11 Becker’s Health IT & CIO Review. On July 11, investigators found an unauthorized person may have accessed…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is filling 13 positions in a new digital health unit that was created as part of the FDA Reauthorization Act of 2017, the September 11 FierceHealthcare reports. The FDA intends to build a group of experts who are experienced with software lifecycle…
Editor's Note After implementation of an anesthesia information management system (AIMS)-based mandatory quality assurance process for reporting of intraoperative adverse events at two academic medical centers, documented adverse events decreased significantly, this study finds. Over a 2-year period after implementation of mandatory reporting, the adverse event rate at Thomas Jefferson…
Ransomware is a form of computer malware used to make data, software, and information technology (IT) assets unavailable to users. It uses encryption of data to hold systems hostage with an associated ransom demand, often in Bitcoin (a virtual currency that is difficult to trace). This encryption is used to…
Editor's Note Cybersecurity experts are warning that Ransomware 2.0 is coming, and healthcare needs to be prepared, the August 8 Healthcare IT News reports. Ransomware 2.0 combines ransomware with a worm, which allows it to move laterally or across internal and external networks. Because the next wave of attacks will…
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced August 7 that hospitals and critical access hospitals participating in Medicare’s Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program will submit their “meaningful use” data via QualityNet rather than the EHR Incentive Program Registration and Attestation System beginning January 2, 2018,…
Editor's Note Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) announced July 11 that it has been designated a Health Care’s Most Wired 2017 by the American Hospital Association’s (AHA) Health Forum. Hospitals & Health Networks, an AHA publication, annually assesses the level of health information technology adoption in US hospitals and health…
Between the expanding population and the increasing number of surgical procedures being performed, demand for surgical services is climbing. One study has predicted a 14% to 47% increase in surgical demand across all surgical fields by 2020. Given the high cost of operations, an efficient workflow is paramount, and there…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced the creation of a new centralized Digital Health Unit in its Center for Devices and Radiological Health, which together with draft guidance on software as a medical device, is designed to support technological innovation and advance digital health, the June…