ORLANDO--Health IT should be subject to randomized, unannounced, on-site inspections, said Dean Sittig, PhD, professor of biomedical informatics at the University of Texas Health Science Center, speaking during the Patient Safety Symposium at the Health Information and Management Systems Society’s annual conference.

ORLANDO—Health IT is advancing and improved use of healthcare data, along with new sources of information, is enhancing care, but challenges related to workflow and security must be met, according to Robert Wah, MD, who delivered the opening keynote for the Physicians’ IT Symposium ahead of the Health Information and Management Systems Society's annual conference.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has announced the selection of 15 provider and administrator champions to join the Health IT Fellows Program.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has posted a video for providers and professionals on five practice transformation initiatives: medical homes, accountable care organizations, the comprehensive primary care initiative, the state innovation models initiative and Million Hearts.

EHR systems and other electronic tools are likely to curb the demand for physicians in the future, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and The Commonwealth Fund.

Outsourcing is an emerging phenomenon in the healthcare information technology market. It is a screening process wherein an organization selects the most efficient third-party service provider to effectively operate its management and administrative unit. Outsourcing of IT solutions in the healthcare industry has emerged as an efficient solution to mitigate rising healthcare costs and to meet the growing demand for quality care. Over the years, the trend of healthcare IT outsourcing  solutions has grown significantly among large organizations and has also attracted mid-sized organizations. In some cases, the entire information management system is outsourced, while in others, only key application services such as implementation of EMR, CRM, and billing systems are outsourced.

Google has announced that it is testing contact lenses that monitor individuals' blood sugar levels, potentially eliminating daily finger-prick tests for patients with diabetes.

When it comes to health IT and patient safety, “we need more and better research to know what to work on first,” said Kathy Kenyon, JD, senior policy analyst at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, and moderator of a Jan. 10 webcast on the subject.