ZyDoc, a New York-based medical informatics company, reported results from its Phase I SBIR research study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, with additional funding by NYSTAR, regarding alternative EHR data entry with dictation. James M. Maisel, M.D., Chairman of ZyDoc served as the Principal Investigator for the project, entitled “Applying NLP to Free Text as an EHR Data Capture Method to Improve EHR Usability.” The approved scientific study awarded to ZyDoc was performed with Columbia University physicians and compared the documentation quality, efficiency, and user satisfaction of conventional data entry in their Allscripts EHR to an alternative method allowing physicians to dictate representative admitting documents for three specialties. The alternative method (“NLP entry”) generated transcribed documents from dictations that were processed using natural language processing (NLP) to extract standard structured ICD-9, ICD-10, SNOMED®, RxNorm and LOINC® terms that are the basis of the next generation of EHR systems being implemented in October 2014.

Once again, Meaningful Use is the big news this week. This time, the news is that the federal Health IT Policy Committee voted to approve the Meaningful Use Work Group’s Stage 3 recommendations.

Meaningful Use has been top of mind for most in healthcare with Stage 2 requirements presenting numerous hurdles for eligible hospitals and professionals.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s (ONC’s) Workforce Development Program trained thousands of students and helped bolster their employment prospects, according an evaluation of the program presented at the Health IT Policy Committee meeting on March 11.

After much debate during the March 11 Health IT Policy Committee meeting, members of the federal advisory committee voted to approve the Meaningful Use Work Group’s Stage 3 recommendations.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued guidance regarding the recently announced hardship exceptions they will consider for those eligible professionals and hospitals struggling to meet Meaningful Use Stage 2.

Black Book Market Research, well known globally for accurate, impartial customer satisfaction surveys in the managed services and software industries, conducted a sweeping five month user poll to determine the highest ranked inpatient electronic health and medical record vendors for 2014. As part of a major research focus on the current replacement market, Black Book announced those vendors with the highest scores in recent client experience in the areas of certification-required EHR functionalities, administrative & documentation functionalities, clinical workflow functionalities, add-on modules, accountable care data requirements, and connectivity capabilities.

The Army is upgrading its EMR system so wounded soldiers on the battlefield will have detailed permanent accounts of the scenario and treatment received. The new version of the Medical Communications for Combat Casualty Care (MC4 system) is being fielded through April, according to an announcement.