Content about information technology

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A group representing the drug retailing industry submitted a letter to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., regarding "issues [that] are of the utmost importance" to its members.

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores' president and CEO, Steve Anderson, wrote to Issa, highlighting certain pieces of legislation that affect traditional drug stores, supermarkets and mass merchants with pharmacies, all of which NACDS represents.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — The industry has a lot to learn in order to determine how to most effectively use electronic communications to improve patient medication adherence, as few studies show how health information technology can be leveraged to motivate patients to take medications as prescribed, according to research sponsored by CVS Caremark.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Poor medication adherence is one of the nation’s “most persistent” healthcare problems, costing the U.S. health system as much as $290 billion a year, or 13% of total health expenditures, according to the New England Healthcare Institute. In response, the nonprofit organization is calling for an urgent national campaign to improve adherence through a team-based, collaborative approach to long-term patient therapy.

NEW ORLEANS Opening another front in its long campaign to extend electronic prescribing and health information technology throughout the United States, e-prescribing platform provider Surescripts said Monday that it will expand its nationwide e-prescribing network to accelerate the digital transformation of the nation’s healthcare system by enabling the electronic exchange of all types of clinical information.

NEWARK, N.J. A smart phone application designed to aid customers at retail pharmacies soon will be available for additional smart phone platforms.

TeleManager announced that it would make the application, iRefill, available for the Android and Blackberry, in addition to the Microsoft and Apple platforms for which it already is available.

WASHINGTON More money is flowing from the federal stimulus coffers to states as the White House continues its push to drive the healthcare system’s massive transformation to a digital and information technology-based platform.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Since the turn of the 21st century, community pharmacy and its technology allies have waged a long fight to shift the nation’s fractious healthcare system to a common communications and record-keeping platform via electronic prescribing and information technology. Those efforts -- led by such companies as Surescripts, the pharmacy industry-founded e-prescribing network -- have made progress.

ALEXANDRIA, Va., and ST. PAUL, Minn. A White House report encouraging the healthcare system’s transformation to health information technology drew a strong endorsement Tuesday from the nation’s largest electronic prescription network.

WASHINGTON Vice President Joe Biden and the Department of Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius have announced a pilot program designed to curb diabetes in 15 selected U.S. cities with the help of health-information technology.

DETROIT In honor of its dedication to driving the adoption of e-prescribing technology in Michigan, the Southeast Michigan ePrescribing Initiative was presented with the 2010 Health Information Technology Innovation Leadership Award at the first annual Michigan HIT Leadership and Innovation Awards reception.