Cerner has reached an agreement to acquire IMC Health Care,of Jacksonville, Fla., which provides employer-sponsored onsite health centers.

Therapeutic and diagnostic solutions provider Tibotec Virco Virology, has acquired the customizable EMR system-Lab Tracker HIV-from the Huntsville, Ala.-based company, Ground Zero Software.

Incentives in the Health IT for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act represent an opportunity to accelerate the development, standardization and utilization of quality measures derived from clinical data in EHRs and from other clinical data sources, according to the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS).

EHRs should be designed to be clinically useful, practical and efficient, according to a recent study published in the January 2010 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Incompatible hospital communications solutions are making it difficult for nurses to effectively communicate with patients and collaborate with care team members, based on the findings of a recent survey by healthcare consulting firm Spyglass Consulting Group.

The 2009 Top 20 Best in KLAS Awards report, released Dec. 14, found that the highest-performing software market segment was enterprise scheduling and the lowest was ambulatory EMR. In professional services, the highest-performing market segment was planning & assessment and the lowest was IT outsourcing.

Pulse Systems has reported that its EHR product, included in Pulse Patient Relationship Management 4.1.02, is the first to receive full certification from the Certification Commission for Health IT (CCHIT) as a fully CCHIT Certified 2011 Ambulatory EHR, with additional certification in child health.

Microsoft today announced its intention to acquire Sentillion, a privately held developer of healthcare software, for an undisclosed sum.