Venture capital funding for health IT companies is on the rise in 2014 with $858 million across 163 deals in the first quarter.

Lack of interoperability is the biggest obstacle to information exchange, according to a report compiled by an independent group of scientists advising the federal government.

The Institute of Medicine’s 2011 report, Patient Safety and Health IT: Building Safer Systems for Better Care, expressed dismay that patient safety hadn’t improved very much since its landmark 1999 study, To Err is Human.

The global healthcare IT integration market is forecast to reach $2,745.9 million by 2018, up from $1,737.3 million in 2013, according to a report from global market research and consulting company MarketsandMarkets.

With so much spent on chronic disease, programs are working to increase patient engagement in an effort to drive down costs. 

A look at impressive results these communities achieved through notification systems, care coordination and analytics. 

Princeton, NJ, April 14, 2014 – NovoPath introduces a customizable web portal to its NovoPath anatomic pathology laboratory information system (APLIS), helping customers efficiently comply with new legislation requiring labs to provide direct patient access to reports.  The new feature enables patients with test results to log on to a web portal through a lab’s website and download the documents generated through NovoPath’s APLIS.

Electronic prescribing plays an important role in improving the safety and quality of the prescribing process, however barriers to implementation remain.