News
In one of the first formal studies of social networking websites targeting patients, researchers in the Children's Hospital Boston Informatics Program found that sites targeted at diabetes patients varied in both the quality of information they provide and the safeguards they take for protecting patient privacy. Researchers at Children's performed an in-depth evaluation of ten diabetes websites. Their audit found large variations in quality and safety across sites, with room for improvement across the board.
The Department of Veterans Affairs has awarded a contract to enable providers to share elements of a patient's electronic health record on mobile devices in addition to three other contracts under its latest VA Innovation Initiative (VAi2) competition. The VA's goal is to use new technologies to improve the quality of veterans' patient care.
Last fall, at the company's annual user conference in Las Vegas, Kronos Chief Executive Officer Aron Ain spoke of the company's plans to develop more mobile and web-based tools for the healthcare market. He said the company's suite of workforce management solutions would be "cool and fun and exciting and intuitive" as they're adopted by a market eager to save time and money though automation.This week, Ain followed through on that promise.
Cloud computing has become a hot topic among healthcare CIOs, who are divided about its benefits. Andrew Sroka, president and CEO of Fischer International, says the debate over cloud computing is well-justified given the proliferation of soft data, new patient privacy standards and ever-changing regulation. Sroka shares with Healthcare IT News the most common myths and potential risks associated with deploying IT processes via cloud computing.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared a new mobile radiology application that allows physicians to view medical images on the iPhone and iPad.The application is the first cleared by the FDA for viewing images and making medical diagnoses based on computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and nuclear medicine technology, such as positron emission tomography (PET).