Internet use among adults has skyrocketed over the past several years and the time may seem ripe for developing web-based tools to help patients manage their health, but research published online Jan. 4 by the Journal of Health Communication suggested that such tools will receive underwhelming attention from patients.

Source: www.scottwalker.orgEmbattled Republican governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker, is planning to turn down $37 million from the federal government that had been awarded to help implement healthcare insurance exchange. The announcement comes after Walker declared last month that Wisconsin would not pursue implementing the exchange until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Patients are demanding access to their health information now more than ever, but the healthcare industry has failed to produce products with a function that live up to consumers expectationsuntil now, according to the presenters of a Jan. 17 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) webinar. They believe that the Blue Button, an online tool that allows patients to easily access and download their health information, is different.

The American Medical Association (AMA) has released three online video tutorials, the first of a series, to help physician practices through health IT implementation processes. The first three videos focus on developing efficient workflows for e-prescribing, pre-visit planning and point-of-care documentation.

The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) has released version 4.0 of the HITRUST Common Security Framework (CSF) and an updated version of the CSF Assurance Program, which includes changes pertaining to the National Institute of Standards and Technologys 800-53 revision 3.

Researchers investigating the effectiveness, clinical usefulness, sustainability and usability of web-accessible tools for diabetes management determined that, despite their abundance, few practical web-accessible tools exist, according to a report published Jan. 3 by the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

Health IT is a boon and improving health practices, according to a survey of more than 3,700 physicians in eight countries from consulting and technology services firm Accenture. But adoption and enthusiasm are uneven.

The percentage of non-hospital based physicians who have adopted a basic EHR has doubled from 17 percent in 2008 to 34 percent in 2011, according to National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari, PhD, who highlighted the Office of the National Coordinator for Health ITs (ONC) achievements from this past year in a HealthITBuzz blog post published Jan. 6.