M.L. Baker

Dozens of GE Healthcare software engineers will soon begin work alongside Intermountain Health Care staff in Utah. The two health IT noteworthies announced plans Wednesday to jointly develop systems that do not just verify that patients receive medications as prescribed by doctors, but also make sure that the medication makes sense. Moreover, constant interaction between […]

In yet another piece of legislation pertaining to health information technology, two Senators are introducing a bill to reward health care providers who report data about high-quality care. If the bill passes, starting in 2007, 1 to 2 percent of Medicare hospital inpatient payments will go into a common pool. The pool will be used […]

PHILADELPHIA—Using data, rather than collecting it, was on several attendees’ minds Monday at the Biotechnology Industry Organization conference here, but ideas about the best way forward may be headed for a clash. Scientists today can generate data in a single afternoon that previously would have required years of work and been considered worthy of a […]

The long-anticipated Clinton-Frist health IT bill has been filed in the Senate. It is similar to a bill introduced last month in the House that would provide grants and loans to allow health information systems to be shared between clinical labs, hospitals and doctors’ offices. The bill would also require that regional health networks be […]

PHILADELPHIA—Nextrials, a software and services company for managing clinical trials, announced Monday that its products are now integrated with those for conducting and collecting data for trials. The arrangements were finalized over the past few weeks and include Dynarand LLC, Covance Inc., Cardinal Health Inc., Fisher Clinical Services Inc. and Acculogix Inc. For Covance, data […]

New legislation proposes awarding a half billion dollars a year for health IT—half in grants, half in loans. The bill was introduced Monday by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and would allocate funds from 2006 to 2011. Additional legislation written jointly by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D., R-Tenn., and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., to […]

Three studies on several thousand women have demonstrated that X-ray images are just as accurate as so-called digital mammograms, in which high-tech equipment records images electronically. Digital mammography systems, which were first approved for marketing in the United States in 2000, cost at least three times as much as film systems, according to ECRI, the […]

The grand vision of health information technology is that electronic tools will help banish medical mistakes, boost the effectiveness and efficiency of clinicians, and make health care more accessible and convenient for patients. Achieving that vision will require the solution of any number of strategic business, technological and legal issues. But for hospitals struggling to […]

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt announced Monday the formation of a “national collaboration” to create a technical standard by which disparate health information technologies would be able to communicate. Leavitt will chair the 17-member American Health Information Community charged with accelerating a nationwide transition to networked electronic health records. Health care costs now […]

Using programs developed to simulate stock markets and warfare, researchers at the University of Chicago have developed software to simulate a more complicated process: the workings of an individual bacterial cell. The tool, called AgentCell, could speed drug discovery and help fight cancer and bioterrorism. Researchers could get results in less time using virtual cells […]

Medicare should combine billing data from its prescription drug program with information collected when Medicare users submit claims for hospital and doctor visits, says the head of CMS. Integrating this information in a huge database could detect potential safety problems with drugs. While the FDA currently assesses drugs’ safety problems in clinical trials with hundreds […]

If you’re allergic to aspirin, avoid having a heart attack where doctors can’t access your medical record. Clinicians are sure to prescribe the drug, which will do you more harm than good. The same principle applies for dozens of other conditions in which optimal care for most is dangerous for some. However, those from Massachusetts, […]