Portrait of Joy Pritts

Health IT Privacy and Security

Joy Pritts | July 8, 2010

Privacy and security are the bedrock of building trust in health information exchange. The proposed modifications to the HIPAA Privacy & Security Rules, announced today, are a significant step forward in HHS’s efforts to protect patient privacy rights while encouraging the adoption of electronic health information exchange.  The next phase of this process is just as important—obtaining public feedback and suggestions concerning the proposed rules.   The comment period will begin once the rule is published in the Federal Register on July 14. 

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Portrait of Dr. David Blumenthal

Temporary EHR Certification Program and List

Dr. David Blumenthal | June 18, 2010

A surgeon can’t operate without the proper equipment. A clinician can’t achieve meaningful use of electronic health records without an EHR that is designed to improve patient care and practice efficiency.
The Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services announces today a big step in ensuring that clinicians can easily identify EHRs and EHR modules that have the capabilities needed to achieve meaningful use and thereby reap the financial incentives offered by Medicare and Medicaid.

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Portrait of Dr. David Blumenthal

Health IT Adoption

Dr. David Blumenthal | June 14, 2010

Introducing change in health care is never easy. Historically, adopting our most fundamental medical technologies, from the stethoscope to the x-ray, were met with significant doubt and opposition. So it comes as no surprise that in the face of change as transformational as the adoption of health IT – even though it carries the promise of vastly improving the nation’s health care – some hospitals and providers push back. I resisted using EHRs while an internist in Boston,

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