Using two of the planet’s largest, creative online communities — World of Warcraft gamers and Etsy artists — as their laboratory, two Indiana University Bloomington researchers hope to understand how the inner workings of such massive, networked collaborations could benefit scientists, corporations and the very IT designers who facilitated the success of the two online communities…

GE Healthcare is bringing today’s EMR technology to tomorrow’s practitioners by donating its latest platform to the University of Texas at Austin for educational use. The University’s Health Information Technology Summer Certificate Program just graduated its first class of 54 students at the end of July. These students used GE Centricity® Advance software in the University’s newly created Health Information Technology Learning Laboratory in the Clinical Education Center University Medical Center Brackenridge…

MAXIMUS, Inc. (NYSE:MMS), a leading provider of government services worldwide, announced that it has launched its Meaningful Use Solutions to help states develop and implement their Electronic Health Record (EHR) incentive programs. In order to encourage “meaningful use” of health information technology (HIT) among providers, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and the HITECH Act provided approximately $35 billion in funding for states to promote EHRs adoption and to create Health Information Exchanges (HIEs)…

Transforming the U.S. health care system from paper-based to electronic-based may improve health care quality and reduce costs, but a new study by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) suggests that goal is far off. The adoption of basic or comprehensive electronic health records (EHR) by U.S. hospitals increased modestly from 8.7% in 2008 to 11.9% in 2009, but only 2% of hospitals met the federal “meaningful use” standard needed to qualify for government financial incentives…

The New Momentum Behind Electronic Health Records Kaiser Health News Health care providers may agree with the benefits of electronic health records. But they also believed that adopting them was too difficult and expensive. … [T]hat’s changing - in large part due to an ambitious investment we made in the Recovery Act to reduce many of the obstacles that limited the spread of electronic health records in the past (HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, 8/26)…

The Human Capital Practice of Willis Group Holdings (NYSE: WSH), the global insurance broker, announced the launch of its Health Care Reform Impact Analysis Calculator, a robust online tool that helps employers of all sizes assess the financial impact of health care reform measures on their businesses over time. Willis’ employee benefits consultants will use the tool when working with clients interested in a broad overview of the costs of health care reform and related timing…

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a reminder to health care providers, health plans, clearinghouses, and vendors about the approaching compliance dates for a new generation of diagnosis and procedure codes and updated standards for electronic health care transactions. The first compliance milestone for transition to the Accredited Standards Committee X12 Technical Reports Type 3, Version 005010 (Version 5010) electronic health care transaction standards is fast approaching…

A survey to determine what the principle stakeholders think of the wireless and mHealth market and how it is set to develop is being conducted in preparation for the Mobile Healthcare Industry Summit, 2010. The data gathered from the survey will be included in the update of the Informa Research’s mHealth market report. Participants will be given a digital copy of the results in appreciation of their help and also entered into a draw to win an Apple iPad. The draw will take place at the Mobile Healthcare Industry Summit in front of the audience…

Imprivata®, Inc., the company that simplifies and secures access to patient information, announced the results of its third annual online national survey that examines IT trends in healthcare. The 2010 Healthcare IT Survey polled hospitals across North America for input on securing patient health information, the move to electronic medical records (EMR) and the impact of clinician workflows on patient outcomes. “More than one year after its passage, hospitals continue to be deeply concerned about their ability to meet deadlines imposed on them by the HITECH Act,” says Barry P…

Siemens Healthcare announced its newly-formed partnership with patient education content provider, ExitCare, to begin providing expanded patient education services to its broad health information technology customer base. The move stems from Siemens’ goal to equip healthcare providers with fresh, highly relevant, patient-focused educational offerings in an easy-to-access format that complement its existing medical software technologies portfolio…