A consulting firm well-versed in the importance of health information privacy was forced to dive deep into the murky issues surrounding health information security when it experienced a breach of its own, Micky Tripathi said during a Dec. 14 presentation at the Privacy and Security Forum hosted by the Health Information and Management Systems Society and Healthcare IT News.

The Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT (ONC) held its annual meeting this week, reviewing its 2012 achievements and looking to next year’s goals. “If we thought healthcare was just fine, we wouldn’t be here today,” said Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM.

Patients want to text and call their doctors but our security needs have not caught up to patient demands, said Leon Rodriguez, director of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR).

“If we thought healthcare was just fine, we wouldn’t be here today,” said Farzad Mostashari, MD, ScM, national coordinator of health IT, speaking at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s (ONC) annual meeting on Dec. 12.

Physician adoption of EHRs and other electronic tools to help improve care, safety and coordination of healthcare continues to rise, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) reported in a data brief.

Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City is the winner of the Health Information Management and Systems Society's (HIMSS) 2012 Enterprise HIMSS Davies Award of Excellence. Since 1994, the Nicholas E. Davies Award recognizes excellence in health information technology, specifically excellence in use of the EHR to successfully improve quality of care and patient safety.

Approximately 5,600 patients of Carolinas Medical Center-Randolph are impacted by a data breach caused by an unauthorized electronic intruder who obtained incoming and outgoing emails from a provider's account without the provider's or the hospital's knowledge.

The health IT dashboard, an interactive online supplement to public data available from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, now includes summary data on the Medicare EHR incentive programs.