Meaningful Use Stage 1 is almost history, as the deadline for its implementation (October 1) is coming up quickly, and healthcare providers will now be moving on to Stage 2. Providers will have to get ready to shift gears because there are a lot of changes for Stage 2. Stage 1 focused more on the… Read more »

Information technology has brought productivity increases in many areas, and it has the potential to increase productivity in healthcare as well. One area where technology is likely to have a major productivity impact is with mobile applications. Recent surveys show that there is a significant trend of physicians using mobile applications in their practices. Although… Read more »

Google Glass – the technology that could have far-reaching implications for information technology in general and information technology for healthcare. What is Google Glass? It is a computer that you wear, like glasses, with a display that is mounted to your head. It can be voice activated, meaning that you do not need to use… Read more »

If you are involved in healthcare, one of the organizations you may want to monitor is the Health IT Policy Committee. This is a federal advisory committee that is helping to put together a national health IT policy. The Committee gives recommendations on health IT policy issues to the national coordinator for health IT policy…. Read more »

With the amount of work being done online and the huge number of online transactions, maintaining the privacy and integrity of digital information becomes a big issue. Cybersecurity has become a major problem as vulnerabilities emerge in online systems. Even though the need for protection is increasing, the shortage of IT professionals who know about… Read more »

In the age of electronic health records, the issue of patient privacy has acquired new urgency. With information stored electronically, it can be accessed by multiple users from different locations from any computer terminal, as well as mobile devices. Some electronic medical records also have patient portals so that patients can access their records as… Read more »

What is big data analytics? It is analyzing huge amounts of data in an attempt to locate patterns, connections, correlations, or other types of information that can be helpful to an organization. The goal of big data analysis is to help in the decision-making process of organizations by giving them information not available by traditional… Read more »

Information technology has the potential to bring great improvements in the quality of healthcare in many different areas. One of those areas is reducing the disparities in treatment among different communities, especially in minority communities. Computer technology can facilitate the collection and use of demographic data to improve the quality of care for minority communities…. Read more »

Cloud computing has been around in the business world for some time, but few have used it within healthcare. Until now, as it’s beginning to generate more interest. Put simply, cloud computing is where computer hardware and software are delivered as a service over some kind of network, such as the Internet. What this means… Read more »

Now that implementation of the electronic health record (EHR) has become a reality at many healthcare facilities, the question arises: what’s next? Is there anything left to do now that all of the health information has been digitized? According to medical experts, there is actually plenty left to do. Issues remain, for example, with effectively… Read more »