Sutter Health, a northern California healthcare network, issued a notice informing its clients that a desktop computer containing some personal health information was stolen from the Sutter Health administrative offices in Sacramento.

A highly functional EHR can facilitate better care by providing complete, accurate and up-to-date information for patients and physicians. But realizing such improvements requires the involvement of physicians who actively engage patients in the information gathering process. So said Peter Basch, MD, medical director of ambulatory EHR and health IT policy at Medstar Health in Maryland, at the Nov. 17 annual meeting of the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT.

The community hospital that still relies exclusively on a paper medical record is rapidly moving toward extinction, according to a report from healthcare researcher KLAS.

Researchers investigating the effects of EHRs on healthcare outcomes at three Minneapolis area emergency departments (ED) expected the presence of documentation available in EHRs to have a measurable positive effect on clinical decision-making, but the results of their study failed to make a conclusive determination.

Nearly two years ago, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) embarked on an ambitious initiative to encourage 100,000 primary care providers to implement EHR systems in their practices. With only one full month to go, the ONC is expected to meet its goal, but the ultimate objective of meaningful use is still a long way off.

The Supreme Court has announced that it plans to review the controversial healthcare reform law that requires minimum healthcare coverage.

Adverse event reporting systems have only negligibly improved healthcare since the 1999 release of the IOM report "To Err is Human," wrote the authors of a New England Journal of Medicine perspective published Nov. 10but, they said, healthcare could be improved by harnessing data and measuring adverse events using EHRs.

Digital x-ray (DR) systems will outsell traditional x-ray systems for non-dental medical use in 2011, according to a report from Kalorama Information titled Medical Imaging Markets: X-Ray, Digital X-Ray, CT and Other Radiography Systems.