Proponents of government support for expanding health IT point to tremendous benefits for the U.S. healthcare system. However, although many experts discuss the hoped-for benefits of health IT, formal evaluation and evidence regarding successful implementation is lacking, according a report from the National Center for Policy Analysis.

Now that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is one year old, its time to ask if the federal government has gotten IT right, according to an editorial in the April issue of HealthAffairs.

One potential benefit of the rapidly accumulating databases of healthcare information is the ability to make unprecedented links between genomic data and clinical medicine, according to a study published by Cell Press in the April issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics.

American Career College will offer an associate of occupational science degree in health IT at its Anaheim, Calif., campus beginning in May. The degree is designed to prepare students to play a role in maintaining, collecting and analyzing the data for doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers.

Family medicine needs influential, aggressive allies, according to a commentary by Mary Nolan Hall, MD, and Jerry Kruse, MD, along with the Association of Departments of Family Medicine, that was published in the January/February edition of Annals of Family Medicine.

The New England HIMSS Public Policy Forum earlier this week brought health IT representatives from six states to Massachusettswidely cited for its universal health insurance law, now roughly three years old. In addition to providing state-by-state reports on health IT, the conference offered speakers and attendees a chance to help figure out what the national healthcare reform legislation might mean on a local level.

NORWOOD, Mass.Despite Massachusetts' reputation as a national leader in healthcare, "hospitals don't do well in our state," said Lynn Nicholas, FACHE, president and CEO of the Massachusetts Hospital Association, at the New England HIMSS annual Public Policy Forum on Wednesday.

After Boston Scientific voluntarily ceased shipment of all its implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) and cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators (CRT-Ds) for failing to notify the FDA of manufacturing changes, the Wall Street Journal has reported that the company is now being probed by the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission.