Healthcare practitioners have a paradoxical reputation as both adept technology users and hidebound technology resisters. We found plenty of the former during our call for entries for the first CMIO Health IT Innovation Awards, which isnt surprising.

It seems like such a simple idea: A patient-owned, electronic personal health record (PHR) that both patients and physicians can populate with data to create an accurate, comprehensive care picture and ensure the patient gets optimized care. After all, who knows more about a patient than that patient?

HealthInfoNet, the nonprofit organization managing the health information exchange (HIE) for the state of Maine, is partnering with medical terminology management company Health Language to assist in the transition from a two-year demonstration project to a full statewide HIE implementation.

Sage North Americas Sage Healthcare Division has released two new products: Sage Intergy version 6.10 and the Sage Intergy Meaningful Use Edition.

The adoption of basic or comprehensive EHR systems by U.S. hospitals increased from 8.7 percent in 2008 to 11.9 percent in 2009, but only 2 percent of hospitals met the federal meaningful use standards needed to qualify for government financial incentives, according to an article published Aug. 26 in an advance online edition of Health Affairs.

GE Healthcare is donating its Centricity Advance EMR platform to the University of Texas at Austin for educational purposes.

Hilary Worthen, MD, has been named CMIO of Cambridge Health Alliance, a three-hospital, Harvard-affiliated integrated public healthcare system that serves Cambridge, Somerville and Boston's metro-north region. 

The EMR purchasing process has matured, there are fewer EMR pioneers and buyers are savvier; so today's EMR projects aren't likely to go way over budget, according to a report from healthcare market research firm KLAS. However, EMR customers may face unexpected costs down the line.