Communications company Polyglot Systems and pharmacy management software developer CarePoint have joined forces to help healthcare providers communicate medication instructions to their patients more clearly.

Mayo Clinic has established an online social network to connect its patients and caregivers with others who share similar health interests.

Meaningful use turned one year old this week with little to no fanfare, perhaps because facilities and physicians are busy trying to comply. As a federally-mandated and subsidized program to move the nation toward EHRs, the success of meaningful use isnt assured, but its come a long way in a year. Much remains to be done; common complaints are 1) the rules as written dont allow enough time for organizations to implement and use health IT meaningfully, as defined by CMS; and 2) the registration/attestation/reporting processes need more work.

Healthcare software developer Extension is now offering context-aware clinical alerts and notification tools to the Android market.

Changes in family history significant enough to alter screening recommendations are common in adults age 30 to 50, according to a multi-institutional study published in the July 13 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Leaders of the Institute for Clinical Quality and Value (ICQV) dissolved the organization effective June 30 and endorsed the American Medical Group Association (AMGA) as an alternative venue for members to share clinical integration ideas, experiences and best practices to improve clinical quality and efficiency.

GE Healthcare has kick-started Centricity Practice Solution 10, its integrated EMR and practice management (PM) system for physician practices.

Parallels, a Seattle-based hosting and cloud services developer, has inked a two-year deal with Microsoft to deliver a cloud automation tool focused on the healthcare industry.