Dr. Robert Kolodner, interim national coordinator and the leadershipteam from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health InformationTechnology (ONCHIT) moderated a town hall meeting yesterday at HIMSS2007 in New Orleans.

The HIMSS 2007 Annual Conference kicked off yesterday in New Orleans, alocation ideal for the conference focused on health informationtechnology (IT) advancements due to its ongoing recovering from theravages of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Last year HITSP (Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel) putforward 30 new health IT standards within its priority focus areas for2006 which included consumer empowerment, electronic health records,and biosurveillance. This comprised 12,000 working hours on the part ofHITSP, and according to John D. Halamka, MD, Chair HITSP, speaking atHIMSS 2007 in New Orleans today, the panel expects that the same amountof work will be done in 2007 as well.

Though 57 percent of private-sector healthcare facilities are currentlyusing EMRs, only 19 percent of state-run facilities have adopted them,according to research released by Citrix Systems, a provider ofapplication delivery infrastructures.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) qualityimprovement organization Delmarva Foundation for Medical Care(Delmarva) has entered into subcontracts with four regionalcollaboratives, as part of the Better Quality Information to ImproveCare for Medicare Beneficiaries (BQI) project.

Dwight W. Reynolds, MD, FHRS, president of the Heart Rhythm Societyreleased a statement regarding the organization’s “mixed feelings”regarding President Bush’s fiscal year 2008 budget proposal.

President Bush has faced some criticism over his recently proposedbudget which targets Medicare spending cuts that have the potential tohit hospitals and physicians with cuts.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report whichevaluates the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS)efforts towards protecting the privacy of health information.