Content about Medical informatics

NEW YORK —In the latest attempt to kick-start the health information technology revolution, the Empire State last month launched a drive to help physicians deploy electronic health records and shift to paperless prescribing. The statewide initiative is aimed at boosting EHR adoption by primary care providers.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Now, it’s up to the doctors.

(THE NEWS: DEA allows controlled drug e-prescribing, handing pharmacy advocates a key victory. For the full story, click here)

DENVER The use of at-home blood pressure monitors and Web-based reporting tools that connect clinicians and patients via the Internet appears to significantly improve patients’ ability to manage their high blood pressure to healthy levels, according to research from Kaiser Permanente released Friday.

REDMOND, Wash. Managing a health condition can be difficult enough, but organizing personal medical information can be even more time-consuming, according to a study commissioned by the Mayo Clinic and Microsoft, which operates the online resource HealthVault. The two have developed the Mayo Clinic Health Manager, a HealthVault application that helps people organize health information.

NEW YORK The health information technology revolution is sweeping beyond urban centers and into the heartland.

Newest case in point: Harris Teeter, whose tagline is “Your Neighborhood Food Market,” and whose reach is deep in the South and Mid-Atlantic regions. The 188-store chain has adopted sophisticated electronic health record technology in 118 in-store pharmacies, giving both its customer-patients and its pharmacists a real-time, easily accessed information platform with which to make more informed health decisions.

The announcement that MinuteClinic and Cleveland Clinic have entered a clinical collaboration is a major example of how providers are communicating electronically to advance patient care, aside from e-prescribing.

While most of the retail-based clinic operators, such as MinuteClinic and Take Care Health Systems, have long used electronic health records to share patient information and ensure continuity of care, this streamlining of systems takes that communication yet one step higher.