By Juli Forde, Director of Strategic Partnerships, ZOLL® Data Systems Emergency medicine physician groups face a revenue and profitability crisis in 2021. In the U.S., most emergency medicine groups have a profit margin, on average, of less than 10%. That, in addition to the volume decline due to the COVID-19…
Sequoia Project sets sights on semantic interoperability with new guidance effort
The Sequoia Project announced Wednesday that it’s forming a new Data Usability Workgroup to continue removing barriers to interoperability, and is calling for participants in advance of its first meeting later this month. WHY IT MATTERS The workgroup, part of the Sequoia Project’s Interoperability Matters cooperative, is focused first on…
SPECIAL REPORT: Kuwait’s digital transformation journey
“At the moment the majority of healthcare services are provided by the public sector and Kuwait’s Vision 2035 is to diversify and also make the private sector a key player in providing health services to everybody,” explains Dr Dari Alhuwail, assistant professor at Kuwait University. Digital health transformation is a…
Info blocking compliance date nears: Legal experts offer toolkit to help
With more and more of its healthcare clients seeking help understanding the detailed requirements for implementing the new information-blocking rules put in place under the 21st Century Cures Act, law firm Davis Wright Tremaine decided to create a new Information Blocking Toolkit to help others manage their compliance. WHY IT…
Tech heavyweights, others call on HHS to release info blocking rules
More than two dozen of healthcare organizations and technology companies sent an open letter this past week to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Management and Budget, urging them to quickly finalize rules allowing application programming interface access to patient records. The letter, signed…
Epic continues campaign for changes to forthcoming ONC info blocking rules
The proposed 21st Century Cures rules around information blocking, interoperability and patient access were released nearly a year ago – and the final rules are expected soon. But recently, a major healthcare player has been getting more vocal about how it thinks the forthcoming regulations need to be changed. On…
Using the right hardware to support clinical collaboration
Two heads are better than one — and sometimes three, or more, are even better yet. The good news for healthcare organizations is that with telehealth solutions, it is much easier to bring professionals and patients together to collaborate, as they no longer need to be in the same physical…
Interoperability Institute's virtual testing environment can help with Cures Act compliance
The Interoperability Institute has launched a simulated healthcare testing environment called Interoperability Land, which aims to help various players in the healthcare space move towards the adoption of the new rules for data sharing and modernization of patient data exchange. WHY IT MATTERS The environment gives organizations the ability to…
CMS unveils new rules aimed at clinician burden, patient experience
As part of its Patients Over Paperwork initiative, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services unveiled its Omnibus Burden Reduction Final Rule on Thursday, aimed at combating clinician burnout. It also finalized a new rule on discharge planning, aimed at patients preparing to move from hospitals into post-acute care settings,…
ONC names Sequoia Project as TEFCA coordinator
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has awarded a new cooperative agreement to the Sequoia Project to run a major component of the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement, or TEFCA. WHY IT MATTERS As the recognized coordinating entity for TEFCA, Sequoia Project is charged with developing,…
Jon White departs ONC, Steve Posnack to take over as Deputy National Coordinator
Deputy National Coordinator for Health IT Dr. Jon White is leaving the agency next month for a position at the Veterans Administration Salt Lake City Health Care System, where he’ll be Associate Chief of Staff of Research. WHY IT MATTERS White has been at ONC for five years. Steve Posnack,…