The Health Care Blog

Certification versus Meaningful Use

By John Halamka Recently, clinicians have asked me "why should I implement my organization's preferred EHR when I've found a less expensive vendor that promises meaningful use?" This illustrates a basic misunderstanding of the difference between Certification and Meaningful Use....
November 10, 2009 in EHR, Meaningful Use | Permalink | Comments (4)

Back to Basics: Toward a Core Set of Relevant and Portable Personal Health Information

By DAVID C. KIBBE In the cacophony of health IT issues, products, and goals that compete every day for our attention, it is easy to lose sight of the profound value that could come from the universal availability of a...
November 3, 2009 in David Kibbe, EHR, HIT, Meaningful Use | Permalink | Comments (21)

“Meaningful Use” Criteria as a Unifying Force

By Vince Kuraitis, David C. Kibbe & STEVE ADAMS Over the past several years, many diverse initiatives have arisen offering partial solutions to systemic problems in the U.S. health care non-system. We see Meaningful Use Criteria recommended by the HIT...
August 29, 2009 in Clinical Groupware, EHR, HITECH, Meaningful Use | Permalink | Comments (6)

Finally, A Reasonable Plan for Certification of EHR Technologies

By DAVID C. KIBBE and BRIAN KLEPPER A caution to readers: This post is about methods for certifying Electronic Health Record (EHR) technologies used by physicians, medical practices, and hospitals who hope to qualify for federal incentive payments under the...
August 4, 2009 in Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, HHS, Marketplace, Meaningful Use, Policy, Policy/Politics, Reform, Technology, The Industry, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (28)

An Update to Meaningful Use

By JOHN HALAMKA On June 16, I wrote about the release of the draft definition of meaningful use. Today, at the HIT Policy Committee meeting, the final definition of meaningful use was released and adopted. What was changed? 1. For...
July 17, 2009 in Meaningful Use | Permalink | Comments (7)

Meaningful Use vs. Meaningless Adoption of Electronic Health Records

By RICK WEINHAUS MD Dr. David Blumenthal, the new National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, has stressed that the goal of the ARRA/HITECH initiative is to improve patient care, not to mindlessly adopt health information technology. In this regard, he...
July 7, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Meaningful Use, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, Reform, Technology, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (9)

“Meaningful Use” - If You Have to Define It, Is It?

By BRIAN BAUM I have a good friend at Duke University - Dr. Ed Hammond. (Ed has been involved in advancing electronic health information for quite some time - probably longer than he'd like to remember.) Ed once told me...
June 22, 2009 in Meaningful Use | Permalink | Comments (4)

The State of Meaningful Use

By MICHAEL PAINTER Is it possible that the State Department is technologically bolder than the HIT Policy Committee? On Tuesday, that committee convened by the Office of the National Coordinator as required by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act released...
June 19, 2009 in Meaningful Use, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

Meaningful meaning? (with UPDATE)

By Matthew Holt The first draft of “meaningful use” came out early yesterday, and I was struck by two things. First, probably influenced by the NCVHS recommendations and the Consumer Partnership for e-Health (See Update), the work-group included a lot...
June 18, 2009 in Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Meaningful Use, Technology | Permalink | Comments (6)

PHRs, The Model T, Meaningful Use and the Patient-Centric HIT Revolution

By BOB COFFIELD There is a growing discussion on the health consumer-centric (patient-centric) meaning of "meaningful use" of EHRs and health information technology. Jane Sarasohn-Kahn summarizes this discussion in her recent post, "Meaningful USe - or, whose health is it,...
June 3, 2009 in Meaningful Use | Permalink | Comments (4)