The federal government's lawsuit over the new healthcare reform bill evolved into a war of words last week when the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) filed its motion to dismiss the constitutional challenges against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act brought by 20 states, the National Federation of Independent Business and individuals affected by the mandate to adopt healthcare insurance.

Siemens Healthcare has updated its Soarian Clinicals web-based health information system.

Diversinet, a secure mobile healthcare applications provider, has reached a settlement with AllOne Mobile and its parent company, AllOne Heath Group, to terminate their September 2008 license and revenue sharing agreement.

WoundVision has introduced its predictive thermographic imaging technology, the WoundVision system, which produces digital and infrared thermographic images, analyzes imaging data and applies predictive models.

The question healthcare providers are facing today is "whether we are pushing too hard, too fast to make this important change," stated David Blumenthal, national coordinator for health IT, on his blog this week. I respectfully submit, no, stated Blumenthal. In turn, I ask, Can we make these changes expeditiously enough?

U.S. hospitals have a long way to go to reach the federal governments proposed standard of entering at least 10 percent of orders electronically, according to a survey of computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems from market research firm KLAS. The report found that only 14 percent of all U.S. hospitals have achieved the expected 10 percent CPOE level required for stage 1 of meaningful use.

Medical research centers, pharmaceutical companies and health IT organizations have united to form Partnership to Advance Clinical electronic Research (PACeR), a new collaborative effort designed to improve the speed and quality of clinical research necessary to develop new medicines.

Since February, 24 security breaches affecting 500 or more individuals have been reported to the Office for Civil Rights. For the year, a total of 54 breaches have been reported, affecting about 449,008 individuals.