The healthcare industry frequently discusses how to use technology to improve patient engagement, but it's just one step in a complex process that, done right, contributes to the much more formative process of patient empowerment.
There's no shortage of health data, and it's growing at a rapid clip, but experts in the field cite challenges around making that information useful, readable and relevant to the physicians and patients who need it most.
The Obama administration has released new datasets on adverse drug events and Medicare pricing. This offers researchers and developers alike a chance to build novel applications and identify cost trends, all in the name of improving efficiency and providing better healthcare while lowering costs.
Between the federal Healthcare.gov site and various state websites, more than 7.5 million Americans signed up for 2014 healthcare coverage on a health insurance exchange. Building those exchanges proved to be much, much easier said than done. Here's a quick look at who succeeded and who failed.
A joint report from the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT, the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Communications Commission provides guidance on how the government intends to regulate clinical healthcare applications without stifling innovation.
Today's healthcare IT leaders have a lot on their plates. The rush to digitize is hitting them hard -- but one CIO says it's shortsighted to simply focus on technology itself, not on the fundamental industry changes that tech will bring.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT is taking incremental steps to make life easier for healthcare providers struggling to meet the criteria for the meaningful use of electronic health record technology. It's welcome relief for overburdened organizations -- but is it enough to meet their demands for improved interoperability?
ICSA Labs, an independent division of Verizon, is now the largest government-approved EHR testing and certification body. The organization has aspirations beyond meaningful use, though, and hopes to drive healthcare IT vendors toward interoperability and innovation.
For IT to stop being a 'cost center' in hospitals and other healthcare organizations, CIOs need to dictate their own IT strategy. Demonstrating the value of information technology to reluctant end users and making better decisions will help IT leaders achieve that goal.
Simply put, 2014 is a big year for electronic health record vendors. They must adhere to stricter standards under the federal government's meaningful use program while convincing healthcare providers that they can meet future needs for information exchange, patient engagement and data analytics. Not everyone will make the cut.
The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care has more than 100 TB of Medicare claims data. This information, combined with peer-reviewed medical research, informs healthcare policy and helps institutions compare their quality metrics. Like any good atlas, it also uses data-driven maps to prove its points.
Healthcare is all about people -- not just the patients a hospital sees but, also, the professionals who take care of them. Those employees can be hard to manage, especially as healthcare models evolve. Before long, inefficiencies emerge and costs skyrocket. Learn how one hospital used human resources software to stop the proverbial bleeding.
If the accountable care organization is to avoid the fate of the health maintenance organization, then ACOs need to take advantage of the data that HMOs lacked in the 1990s -- and realize that holding, viewing and using data are different concepts that each come with different issues.
Ever the risk-averse industry, healthcare is finally beginning to trust cloud for the storage of protected health information. Experts credit better cloud security, dropping costs and the growing need for disparate organizations to share information. What's more, this only appears to be the tip of the healthcare cloud iceberg.
It's easy to gain weight during the holidays but tough to lose it. Over the years, that weight adds up. Here 10 fitness experts discuss how apps, wristbands, monitors and other technology can help you set and achieve fitness goals during the holiday season -- and far beyond.