E-prescribing leads to a significant increase in first-fill medication adherence, according to a study from Surescripts. Analysis of de-identified data suggest that the increase in first-fill medication adherence combined with other e-prescribing benefits could, over the next 10 decade, lead to between $140 billion and $240 billion in healthcare savings and improved health outcomes.

While IT has been leveraged by other industries to lower costs and increase efficiency, the promise of health IT to transform the healthcare industry has yet to be realized even though millions of dollars in funding has been directed toward promoting health IT adoption, according to a Bipartisan Policy Center report. Based on the findings of a task force headed by former senators Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), the report makes six recommendations for accelerating the use of health IT.

Farzad Mostashari, MD, national coordinator for Health IT, clued the nation into five health IT trends expected to take off as healthcare reform progresses and predicted that 2012 is the year that health IT truly comes of age.

The ability to achieve financial sustainability for HIEs is questionable. HIE leaders share their thoughts on how theyre trying to get and stay in the black.

Since 1993, Utah has been honing its statewide health information exchange (HIE). All of the state's hospitals, national laboratories and approximately 90 percent of providers currently exchange administrative claims data through the Utah Health Information Network (UHIN), but now the state is beginning to navigate an unfamiliar landscape: clinical health information exchange (cHIE).

Health information exchange (HIE) continues its onward march, despite the occasional setback. For every step forward, it seems we take one or two back due to slow physician adoption of health IT and other challenges.

A new application (app) for Android devices allows nine million Kaiser Permanente patients to access their own medical information on mobile devices through a mobile-optimized website. Mobile device users can get full access to their information from the Kaiser Permanente health record system with the mobile-optimized version of kp.org.

Healthcare consulting firm Beacon Partners surveyed more than 200 healthcare executives to determine the value of and interest in health information exchanges (HIEs). Despite concerns, the survey concluded that there was an overall positive opinion regarding the benefits of HIEs with 70 percent of executives reporting that they felt positively about HIEs.