Prior authorization reform for health care coverage takes center stage
One of the leading reasons for provider frustration is prior authorizations. The insurance companies initially created prior authorization (prior auth) to keep down the cost of care when a service fee...
View ArticleHow to recover from a bad electronic health records implementation
Is your health care organization reeling from a bad EHR implementation? There have been rumblings from hospital leadership and congressional committees about the Veterans Administration (VA) Hospitals’...
View ArticleFrom electric fish to smart device EHRs: the mind-blowing evolution of health...
Fun fact: The first recorded use of electric stimulation to ease pain was in … get ready … CE 46! That’s right, nearly 2,000 years ago, ancient Roman writer Scribonius Largus described the use of...
View ArticleInnovation and the ever-changing role of the CMIO
This summer, I got the opportunity to interview Dr. Nathan Gause. I saw how passionate he is about serving his community and developing young African American physicians and scientists. He has...
View ArticleA patient caught in the middle of a communication crisis
A 65-year-old female presents to the emergency department (ED) with contusion from a fall at work. She has no loss of consciousness. Two other employees at her workplace, the cardiac floor of the same...
View ArticleThe race to find uses for Big Data
Smartwatch wearers: Have you checked your smartwatch lately? Did it tell you how many steps you have or how fast your heart is beating? How accurate is the information? What does that number mean for...
View ArticlePhysician informatics demystified
Nurse: “I need help with the computer; patient transfer needs to be completed.” Me: “Ma’am, the patient’s medications are on ‘MAR HOLD,’ which means Medication Administration Record Hold. Therefore, we...
View ArticleDo prescription drug monitoring programs hurt more than they help?
It was a warm summer in Maine but felt like a cold winter in the confines of the hospital building. I was seated next to a physician who was quietly working on a big screen monitor. It was a slow...
View ArticleThe artistic side of a broken pot: a story about Oracle and Cerner
I recently had an opportunity to assist a hospital organization with its electronic health records implementation in Las Vegas. I’m usually working non-stop during implementations, but I was ecstatic...
View ArticleSeen at HIMSS: the latest innovations in artificial intelligence, mixed...
ChatGPT and Epic Systems This year’s buzzword in academic and now business technology is ChatGPT. Epic Systems, Microsoft, and OpenAI (the owners of ChatGPT) have announced the release of the next...
View Article2024 health care informatics forecast: AI diagnostics, personalized medicine,...
Predicting specific developments in health care informatics for 2024 is challenging, but trends suggest continued advancements in AI-driven diagnostics, personalized medicine, and enhanced...
View ArticleHealth care informatics and the future of patient care
In the digital age, health care informatics has emerged as a pivotal field, transforming the landscape of health care delivery and management. This discipline, crucial for both professionals within the...
View ArticleThe universal impact of health care informatics
In the bustling city of New York lived a young woman named Emily. Emily wasn’t a health care provider or even remotely associated with the medical field. She worked as a graphic designer, spending her...
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