ATLANTA--David Hunt, MD, chief medical officer and acting director of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), described the work ahead for his agency. At ONC, 2010 is a bit of a moment. Its incredibly exciting and more than a little bit scary, Hunt conveyed during the opening keynote of the Physicians IT Symposium today at HIMSS10.

During the Health IT Standards Committee meeting on Feb. 24 in Washington, D.C., the Privacy & Security Workgroup sought to gather comments on proposed recommendations on an initial set of standards, implementation specifications and certification criteria for EHRs for the interim final rule (IFR) of meaningful use.

Wednesday, March 3, 2:15 PM - 3:15 PM Creating a common problem list from diverse EMRs at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center raised challenges despite common terminology. The presenters will describe their solution to these challenges, which impact semantic interoperability.

Rauland-Borg (Booth #5603) will showcase the system integration of Versus Technologys real time locating system (RTLS) to Raulands Responder 5 Nurse Call at the HIMSS10 conference March 1-3 in Atlanta.

Merge Healthcare has reported receiving numerous calls from investors about its proposal to acquire Amicas for $6.05 cash per share, or an aggregate of $248 million, and in response the company is providing additional information to clarify certain questions raised by investors. The company also has received a commitment letter from Morgan Stanley Senior Funding for $200 million for bridge financing to partly fund the merger.

Healthcare IT and software provider Forecare B.V. will be facilitating a radiology information exchange network for the Amsterdam Regional HIE organization, between the Academic Medical Center, the OLVG Hospital and the Dutch National Cancer Institute Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in Amsterdam.

The percentage of respondents who report using an EMR continues to rise, with 43 percent in 2009 reporting current use, up from 33 percent in 2007 and 27 percent in 2005, according to a recently release EMR report by the Texas Medical Association (TMA).

Technology company Zanett (Booth # 5451) and St. Vincent Health will present the new, jointly developed Clinical Online Delivery System (CODS) software at the Microsoft Health Users Group Exchange during HIMSS10 in Atlanta on Feb. 28.