Ninety-four percent of physicians are using smartphones to communicate, manage personal and business workflows and access medical information, according to a report from Spyglass Consulting Group. This represents a significant increase from Spyglass findings in a similar study published in November 2006 in which 59 percent of physicians reported using smartphones.

The University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) in Ann Arbor, Mich., has signed a contract with Epic Systems to become the primary vendor for clinical software and systems at UMHS for the first stage of a multi-year effort that will involve computing and clinical staff to transform the use of IT at UMHS.

The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) has launched new certification programs for EHRs in behavioral health, both as an optional addition to ambulatory EHR certification and as a stand-alone behavioral health EHR used in other outpatient settings.

The healthcare landscape has changed a lot since Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN), the first statewide health information exchange (HIE) in the U.S., went live in the spring of 2007, says Gina Perez, MPA, the DHIN executive director. Perez, who also serves on the Department of Health and Human Services' Health IT Standards Committee, recently spoke with CMIO about these changes and whats next for DHIN.

The Certification Commission for Health IT (CCHIT) submitted an application to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) to become an authorized testing and certification body last week.

EHR implementations are the top priority among healthcare IT professionals, with 85 percent indicating that they are either in the midst of an EHR project or plan to start one within the next 18 months, based on a survey from Embarcadero Technologies.

Mirth powered the first U.S. publicly staged multiple-organization demonstration of National Health Information Network (NHIN) direct standards and technologies at the recent Redwood MedNet HIE Conference in Santa Rosa, Calif.

Insight Medical Imaging in Edmonton, Alberta, is now utilizing IntelePACS breast imaging system from Intelerad Medical systems for screening and diagnostic mammography studies.