Portrait of Judy Murphy

Meaningful Use Makes Lower Adverse Drug Rates A Reality

Judy Murphy | August 15, 2014

When the Health Information Technology for Economic and Digital Health (HITECH) Act was passed in 2009 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, hopes were high that widespread use of electronic health records (EHRs) would reduce the rate of adverse drug events in hospitals.  Advocates believed incentives that encouraged hospitals and physicians to adopt EHRs would not only encourage faster adoption, but help to improve patient health. 

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Portrait of Kerry Souza

Health Centers Are Leading Efforts to Incorporate Patient Work Information into Electronic Health Records

Kerry Souza | August 15, 2014

Community health centers are the largest providers of health care to underserved individuals in the United States and in many communities are at the forefront of health IT innovation. Health centers have long worked to improve the quality and efficiency of the care they provide, and have adopted health IT as a tool to facilitate that improvement.

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Portrait of Dr. Karen B. DeSalvo

Developing a Shared, Nationwide Roadmap for Interoperability

Dr. Karen B. DeSalvo | August 6, 2014

When we issued our interoperability vision paper, Connecting Health and Care for the Nation: A 10-Year Vision to Achieve an Interoperable Health IT Infrastructure, in June, and the HHS Principles and Strategy for Accelerating Health Information Exchange last year, we promised that the journey would be collaborative.  I am pleased to say we are delivering on this promise and launching a new, interactive community on www.healthit.gov/interoperability-community.

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Portrait of Dr. Karen B. DeSalvo

ONC Launches Challenge to Improve Blood Pressure Control Using Health IT

Dr. Karen B. DeSalvo | July 30, 2014

Heart disease and stroke are two of the leading causes of death in the United States. To combat these threats, the Department of Health and Human Services (co-led by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS]) has joined with private and non-profit organizations such as the American Heart Association, American Pharmacists Association and the YMCA, to launch Million Hearts®, a national initiative to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes by 2017.

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