The State of California Health and Human Services Agency has decided to form a new governance entity for California health information exchange (HIE). The California Regional Health Information Organization (CalRHIO) board of directors is honoring its commitment to the state not to compete with a new governance entity established for this purpose by disbanding.

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) proposed rules for incentive payments to eligible healthcare professionals and hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs that adopt and meaningfully use certified EHR technology is the result of unprecedented collaboration among leaders from all areas of healthcare. However, the 556-page document, released Dec. 30, 2009, is raising questions and concerns in the healthcare community--some of which were raised by two CIOs in a CMIO interview.

Research, published in the January/February issue Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, found the Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) Trial Implementations project showed proposed data specifications as the starting point for data exchange nationally were quite suitable for the goals of the project and for the eventual NHIN rollout, said lead author Gilad J. Kuperman, MD, PhD., in an interview.

Benefits from EHR and e-prescribing investments come under very broad, diverse categories but are very individual and specific to the retrospective context of an investment, according to a study by the European Commission. There is no single correct strategy for implementing EHRs and e-prescribing systems, yet the results of the study give grounds for optimism in the success, value and deployment of interoperable EHR and e-prescribing systems after a few years.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente recently launched a pilot medical data exchange program in San Diego enabling clinicians from VA and Kaiser Permanente to obtain views of a patient's health using EHR information through the National Health Information Network.

Lawson Software has agreed to acquire Healthvision Solutions, through the acquisition of privately held Quovadx Holdings, its parent holding company. Healthvision provides integration and application technology and related services to hospitals and healthcare organizations.

Crystal Run Healthcare, a medical practice in Middletown, N.Y., has linked its Carestream Health's RIS/PACS with its EMRs to facilitate health information exchange between the two systems and create reports.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released four notices seeking contractors to assist and evaluate the administration of grant programs from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT that promote state health information exhanges and the creation of health IT training centers.