Health IT shouldn't replace people but augment them, said D.J. Patil, PhD, the White House’s chief data scientist, speaking at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s fifth annual Consumer Health IT Summit on Oct. 1.

An online risk model using data from Maine's statewide health information exchange (HIE) predicted the healthcare utilization and needs of patients for a six-month period.

All 36 independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BCBS) companies will contribute comprehensive data on healthcare quality and costs to Blue Cross Blue Shield Axis (BCBS Axis), collecting the data from more than 2.3 billion procedures conducted annually from mor ethan 20,000 healthcare facilities and 540,000 physicians.

When GE Capital sold its entire Healthcare Financial Services (HFS) business to Capital One for close to $9 billion, including $8.5 billion in outstanding loans, some wondered whether GE was looking to get out of healthcare altogether. 

Healthcare is one of four areas targeted by the University of Michigan's $100 million, five-year big data initiative. 

With all the cutting-edge software programs designed to help providers track trends, it seems the relatively simple concept of transparency is driving significant change. 

From 2009 to 2012, Medicare spending grew at an annual rate of 1.1 percent, a decline from the previous five years when Medicare spending increased at an average annual rate of 5.1 percent. Researchers from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management found 14 percent of the share of the decline in spending growth was due to lingering effects of the U.S. economic recession that lasted from December 2007 to June 2009.

Researchers from the Cincinnati Children's' Hospital Medical Center teamed up with ImproveCareNow Network to create a proof-of-concept architecture for a network-based learning health system to integrate chronic care management, quality improvement and research.