The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released updated regulations on financial conflicts of interest for investigators and institutions that apply for Public Health Service (PHS) funding. The update is designed to provide a framework for identifying, reporting and managing financial conflicts of interest in an effort to enhance transparency and avoid conflicts that may bias research results and threaten credibility and public trust.

Patient safety programs help hospitals ward off infectionsand save money. Those are among the conclusions reached by researchers at the Johns Hospkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who found that one patient safety program in Michigan resulted in savings of as much as $53,000 per infection averted, according to a cost-effective analysis published in the September issue of the American Journal of Medical Quality.

Comparative effectiveness research (CER) will likely continue to be an important effort in generating evidence regarding the most effective diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, according to an article published in the September edition of Academic Radiology.

Although enterprise business intelligence (BI) tools are growing in acceptance, industry agnostic solution vendors are still making a good showing in healthcare, according to a recent report from market researcher KLAS.

During recessions, fewer than 50 percent of IT organizations increase their IT operational budget, according to an August report from research firm Computer Economics. This finding was upheld in 2009 and 2010, and the Irvine, Calif.-based firm predicted the IT spending recession has largely paused with 60 percent of IT organizations now increasing their IT operational budgets.

California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris has filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit supporting the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and urging the court to affirm the states' rights to protect the health and safety of its citizens.

Identity theft prevention service provider Identity Finder reportedly discovered that a website exposed documents containing hundreds of individuals health information and database files containing approximately 300,000 names and Social Security numbers of California residents who applied for workers' compensation benefits.

Use of natural language processing (NLP) performed better at identifying postoperative surgical complications than the commonly used administrative data codes in EMRs, according to a study in the Aug. 24/31 issue of Journal of American Medical Association.