Far-sighted facilities and healthcare systems are learning how to harness technology to buttress their fiscal health. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) is taking that concept to an entrepreneurial level, partnering with industry to develop cost-saving, care-enhancing technologies and commercializing those technologies for profit.

Providers must constantly assess and advance their IT infrastructure to support new medical technologies, treatments and healthcare reform efforts. This “behind-the-scenes” nature of the beast poses its own challenges, beyond the ever-present concerns about costs.

Providers are increasingly clamoring for clinical decision support tools, but simple plug-and-play products don’t exist yet, and CDS tools developed locally often have similar problems, according to a report from KLAS. 

Paul H. Frisch, PhD, received the 2012 ACCE-HIMSS Excellence in Clinical Engineering and Information Technology Synergies Award, which recognizes individuals who have best demonstrated leadership in promoting or implementing significant synergies between the clinical engineering and information technology professions.

Optum and Mayo Clinic have jointly launched Optum Labs, an open, collaborative research and development facility with the goal of improving patient care.

Last chance to take the 2013 Clinical Innovation + Technology Health IT Leadership Survey! Please take a few minutes to tell us what you think about some of the most challenging IT issues facing the healthcare industry. You could win $200!

As the ICD-10 compliance deadline edges closer and Meaningful Use lurches forward, providers have a heap of IT challenges on their plate, according to a January report from KLAS.

James Turnbull, CIO at University of Utah Health Care in Salt Lake City, was selected by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives and the Health Information and Management Systems Society to receive the 2012 CIO of the Year award.