Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) kicked off the first meeting of the Georgia Medicare EHR Community Partnership as part of the DCH's ongoing efforts to encourage small- to medium-sized physician practices to adopt EHRs.

CHICAGO—Cardinal Health has signed an exclusive agreement withUltraSPECT to provide imaging processing software to cut scanning timein half or double the image resolution of existing nuclear medicalimaging equipment, which was announced at the American College ofCardiology (ACC) Scientific Sessions.

Royal Philips Electronics has launched the USB Smart Key, a licensingtool that allows dictation software licenses to be uploaded to anycomputer.

McKesson Provider Technologies has acquired Rosebud Solutions, aprovider of software solutions to track and manage instruments,endoscopes and tissue implants for surgical services, as well asmedical crash carts and mobile equipment.

Standardization, clinical decision support, integration and structuredreporting all are part of speech recognition’s path to the future, withmany vendors well on their way to offering these advances in the nearfuture. Some are already on the market.

It takes a lot of work to successfully implement an electronic medicalrecord system. Those who’ve done it say you cannot underestimate theplanning and preparation required, from workflow to training tomotivating everyone involved.

In the drive towards increased efficiencies, either implementing or upgrading automated physician reporting systems is a major goal for many imaging facilities. From computerized provider order entry (CPOE) to cardiovascular information systems practices and clinical departments are bringing new technology online designed to automate as much as possible of the physician reporting process. But to make it work, you’ve got to get your physicians on board.

The Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology plans to integrate the Nationwide Health Information Network with the healthcare databases that Google and Microsoft launchedlast year, on which individuals can store their health records,according to the Health and Human Services Department.