Weymouth, MA, July 10, 2013 -- Beacon Partners, a leading healthcare management consulting firm, and Information Builders, a leader in business intelligence (BI) and analytics, information integrity, and integration solutions, today announced the formation of a strategic business partnership. Information Builders provides healthcare organizations with a complete BI and analytics solution – and has now added Beacon Partners as an integral component in this effort. Beacon Partners will help its customers leverage Information Builders software to meet the integration, intelligence, and data integrity challenges of electronic medical records (EMR), clinical transformation, and consumer engagement.

It doesn’t seem that the federal government took off much time for the 4th of July holiday—at least when it comes to health IT. From cybersecurity to a health IT safety plan, there is plenty to consider.

The annual list of the Most Wired U.S. hospitals from Hospitals & Health Networks, numbering 289 this year, offers both reason to cheer and evidence of roadblocks in the nation’s effort to tech-up its health-care system.

Non-targeted patient record query recommendations are forthcoming and may be unveiled at the next Health IT Policy Committee (HITPC) on Aug. 7, Privacy & Security Tiger Team Co-chair Devon McGraw, director of the Health Privacy Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, said at the July 9 HITPC meeting.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT discussed the recently released Health IT Patient Safety Action and Surveillance Plan during a July 10 webinar, including goals of the plan and strategies for carrying out those goals.

A new report released by the Department of Health and Human Services offers up details on the latest implementation activities by the private and public sectors to meet the goals of the National Strategy for Quality Improvement (National Quality Strategy).

Two reports from Health Affairs point to a strong increase in health IT adoption among hospitals and physicians groups due to federal incentives, but amid uneven progress with considerable barriers to overcome—especially in achieving Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 2.

The proposed rule setting the physician fee schedule and payment policies for Medicare Part B in 2014 includes 29 new quality measures that physicians must report on in 2014 when participating in the group practice reporting option of the Physician Quality Reporting System.