Health IT

Portrait of Rachel Abbey

PULSE Supports Health Care During Disasters

Rachel Abbey | January 24, 2020

When disaster strikes, most of us think about how we can best protect ourselves and our loved ones. We can’t always think about our health records though. Disasters can often aggravate chronic disease and cause disruptions at hospitals, clinics and other health care and social service facilities. If we even have them, very few of us think about taking our health records when evacuating, but that’s where health IT can help.

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Portrait of Christian Johnson

New Data Highlights Opportunity to Improve Access and Use of Online Medical Records among Individuals with Cancer

Christian Johnson | January 23, 2020

New data released by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) examines how people diagnosed with cancer access and use their online medical record. Nearly 60 percent of individuals with a previous cancer diagnosis reported being offered access to their online medical record by a healthcare provider or insurer (Figure 1), according to data from the National Cancer Institute’s Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS). This rate is compared to 50 percent for people never diagnosed with cancer.

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Portrait of Thomas A. Mason

New Additions to the Health IT Playbook

Thomas A. Mason | January 21, 2020

Today, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is releasing an updated version the Health IT Playbook, a tool to help clinical practices reduce the burden of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and make the most of their health IT investment. The Playbook is an intuitive, easy to navigate, web-based resource designed particularly to help solo and small to medium-sized physician practices with adopting, optimizing, upgrading, or changing EHR systems.

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Portrait of Elisabeth Myers

New Data Show Nearly One-Third of Hospitals Can Access PDMP Data within their EHR

Elisabeth Myers | October 23, 2019

Combatting the opioid crisis is a top priority for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the nation. Equipping healthcare providers with easy access to data about their patients’ opioid prescriptions is one strategy to help reduce opioid misuse. Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) are state-run databases that collect patient-specific prescription information at the point of care, or when a controlled substance is dispensed. PDMPs can be a tool for health care providers to improve prescribing practices,

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