Iowas Medicaid program is the first to receive matching federal funds to plan for the implementation of an EHRs incentive program as established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

The problem of developing security mechanisms needed for management protocols and policy management of personal health information (PHI) remains largely unsolved, according to Gerald Masson, PhD, director of the John Hopkins University Information Security Institute, who spoke at an assembly hearing of the Health IT Standards Committee on Nov. 19.

David Blumenthal, MD, the national coordinator for health IT, todayannounced plans to make available $80 million in grants to help develop and strengthen the health IT workforce in the community college setting.

Hewlett-Packard (HP) reported a 14 percent profit gain in the 2009 fourth quarter, despite a decline in revenue over the same period.

Current interoperabilty information security standards limitations for health IT include minimum encryption standards, which are not being met by many of the 7,000 contributing entities, according to Michael Mellor, chief information security officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Siemens Healthcare released its newest project, Syngo.via, a software solution that automates case preparation, integrates imaging modalities and pre-existing solutions and consistently updates customers.

Healthcare in the U.S. can only be reformed with standard computerization and systematic thinking, said George Halvorson, CEO of healthcare organization Kaiser Permanente, in a Web cast hosted by Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP last week.

Medical imaging IT developer Infinitt North America has released its original equipment manufacturer (OEM) PACS, InfinittAccent, for EMR, hospital information system and practice management vendors.