With the healthcare industry focused mainly on the frenzy the pandemic caused, many IT initiatives and EHR implementations were paused or cancelled completely. But, many health centers quickly realized that EHR Implementation or Optimization was desperately needed to sync & enhance systems and provide the best level of patient care. As providers and technology vendors realized they needed to work together to achieve the best results & provide the highest level of care, remote implementations became a possibility. Read More Here

Consumer ratings and reviews have long been used to rate quality and satisfaction with products or services yet the healthcare industry has always struggled to gather consistent and substantial results. The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) and researchers from University of California, San Francisco may have an answer for this and have teamed up to develop a rating site called InteropSelect. Even with InteropSelect or other crowdsourcing methods, Health IT Tools & Interoperability Solutions will continue to be hard to rate on a universal scale due to customized implementations, finding reviewers with appropriate knowledge and credentials and getting vendors to interact with a system that doesn’t yet impact their sales. Read More Here

In a world that has had to quickly adapt to virtual and mobile based healthcare amidst the pandemic, protecting patient data may not be at the forefront of providers minds as they prioritize caring for their patients. Cloud based solutions may be the answer to not only making Patient Health Information (PHI) accessible and shareable, but also protecting it effectively as it moves between applications, providers, and patients. Cloud systems and cloud solutions not only provide better fluidity of patient data, but also allow better protection against cybersecurity threats if integrated and managed correctly. Read More Here

The Premier Healthcare Alliance and the Patient ID Coalition are asking the US Senate to follow suit after the House of Representatives voted to remove the bill prohibiting the use of federal funds for the adoption of a national patient identifier (NPI). With the creation of an NPI, patient records would be linked across multiple facilities & care providers and may lower care costs, increase patient safety, improve clinical decision-making, and support care coordination. There is an especially high importance placed on patient matching as we are still dealing with Covid-19. This would ensure that patients tested in temporary sites receive the correct results or patients receiving a potential vaccine, in multiple doses as proposed, receive it within the defined vaccination window. Read More Here 

In an effort to increase interoperability and patient data exchange, The University of Missouri Tiger Institute Health Alliance (TIHA) partnered with the Lewis And Clark Information Exchange (LACIE) to create a better and more efficient collaboration between the two entities to enhance patient care across state lines.  Patients under this HIE are now able to visit a broader range of health care centers in their neighboring states due to increased interoperability. Also as a result of this partnership, more facilities will be able to access patient medical records, allowing patients a better allowance of choices in medical care & greater access to specialists if needed. Read More Here