In light of the recent U.S. Deficit Reduction Act, most readersresponding to last week’s survey (64 percent) plan to reduce theirorganization’s capital technology purchases.

Automated QA software is a sound investment that can take a QA programto a higher level by automating manual processes, proactivelyidentifying problems and delivering alerts to the desktop and providinga link to national standards.

Healthcare leaders are moving beyond managing patient images andinformation via information systems and now harnessing IT to improvepatient safety and increase quality of care.

A House subcommittee focused on health issues yesterday approved a bill(HR 4157) designed to boost health IT usage nationally through privacystandards and EHRs (electronic health records).

Health IT has the potential to offer considerable quality of careimprovements such as improving clinical informatics, diagnosis,treatment, patient safety and decreasing inefficiencies, according to anew study from the Mathematica research firm.

If the opening session speakers at the Medical Records Institute annualconference Towards the Electronic Patient Record (TEPR 2006), held thisweek in Baltimore, were anything to judge by, widespread adoption ofelectronic health records isn’t likely in the near future.

RTI International announced yesterday that 22 states have signedagreements to join a national public-private collaborative aimed ataddressing privacy and security policy questions affectinginteroperable health information exchange.