Black Book Rankings has released its annual rankings of the EHR vendors for inpatient settings. A division of the Brown-Wilson Group, a market research firm, Black Book Rankings surveyed 12,075 healthcare system stakeholders familiar with EMRs and graded their rankings of 422 EHR vendors against 18 separate performance areas.

Doctors Helping Doctors Transform Healthcare officially launched on Dec. 1. The nonprofit, collaborative effort led by doctors for other doctors, was created to promote the transformation of the healthcare system through increased use of health IT.

The meaningful use Stage 2 deadline has been extended to 2014 for eligible hospitals and professionals that qualified as Stage 1 meaningful users in 2011, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced.

CHICAGO--Despite early assumptions that meaningful use (MU) targeted only primary care, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has paid nearly $1 billion to eligible providers and less than half of that amount has been distributed to primary care physicians, Keith J. Dreyer, DO, PhD, vice chairman of radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, said during a Nov. 29 session at the 97th Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) recently unveiled a final rule that further details the responsibilities of the ONC-Approved Accreditor (ONC-AA) and outlines a process for disciplinary action should the ONC-AA fail to meet those responsibilities.

The market for EHRs/EMRs will presumably expand as more healthcare organizations, encouraged by financial incentives included in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), adopt the technology. IDC Health Insights research estimates an adoption rate of more than 80 percent by 2016, up from less than 25 percent in 2009, and predicts a competitive EHR/EMR market that values vendors responses to providers needs.

Radiologists indicate concern about meaningful use (MU), according to a survey from KLAS and the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

True integration is ideal for getting the most out of practice management systems and EHRs. However, the cost of replacing multiple legacy systems results in interfacing for most organizations.