Healthcare Usability

Several health IT stakeholders say technology will play a key role in CMS' new "Next Generation Accountable Care Organization Model," which will expand coverage of telehealth services, FierceHealthIT reports (Bowman, FierceHealthIT, 3/11).

Allowing patients to view their electronic health records during hospital stays does not drastically increase nurses' and physicians' workloads, according to a University of Colorado study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, Reuters reports.

The Electronic Health Record Association has created a workgroup on health care delivery system reform, Clinical Innovation & Technology reports (Walsh, Clinical Innovation & Technology, 3/5).

A coalition of mental health professionals and advocates has asked Congress to approve financial incentives to help mental health providers adopt electronic health records, but some professionals have raised privacy concerns about the use of EHRs among such providers, Kaiser Health News/Washington Post reports.

In a Health Affairs blog post, a group of Republican senators write, "There is inconclusive evidence that the [HITECH ACT] has achieved its goals of increasing efficiency, reducing costs and improving the quality of care."

The FDA launched a new mobile application that allows users to share and obtain information about drug shortages, Modern Healthcare reports.

More than two-thirds of elderly U.S. residents want access to health care services from home, but a majority say they are concerned current technology cannot facilitate such capabilities, according to a new survey by Accenture, Modern Healthcare reports (Tahir, Modern Healthcare, 3/2).

Mobile health technologies can improve adherence to chronic disease management, but mixed evidence of the tools' effectiveness necessitates further research, according to a study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research,

The majority of health-related Web pages allow third parties to view users' information, raising privacy concerns for health-related search practices, according to a study published in the journal Communications of the ACM, Time reports.

The House Ways and Means Committee passed by voice vote the Electronic Health Fairness Act (HR 887), which would exempt ambulatory surgical centers from the meaningful use program, Politico's "Morning eHealth" reports (Gold et al., "Morning eHealth," Politico, 2/27).

Mississippi has been a leading adopter of telehealth and its successes have had an effect on other states and the debate over telehealth policy at the federal level, Politico reports.<

About 66% of U.S.

The Federal Trade Commission levied fines against the marketers of two mobile health applications over misleading claims that the apps could be used to diagnose and assess the risk of melanoma, the Washington Post's "The Switch" reports.

While the adoption of electronic health records among emergency and outpatient departments increased between 2006 and 2011, physicians in such departments largely struggled to use the EHR systems to achieve meaningful use objectives, according to a new report released by CDC's National Center for Health Statistics, Medscape reports.

The Apple smartwatch set to be released in April lacks some health-related technology components that the company had originally envisioned, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Few patients use health IT tools to connect with their doctors and access their personal health data, according to a new survey from Salesforce, MobiHealthNews reports.

The survey polled about 1,700 U.S. adults.

On Friday, Feb 6 2014, the FDA issued two final guidance documents that detail the agency's plans to loosen its regulation of medical device data systems and mobile applications, Health Data Management reports.

Just 15% of meaningful use Stage 2-eligible professionals have attested to the program's requirements, according to the latest data from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, Becker's Health IT & CIO Review reports (Jayanthi, Becker's Health IT & CIO Review, 2/4).