Fairview Health Services, a healthcare system in Minneapolis, is ahead of the pack when it comes to electronic medication ordering and management.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) has drastically altered the way healthcare organizations and their third-party vendors secure data and manage a data breach. As these rules begin to take effectand become requirementshealthcare organizations are just starting to learn and understand the implications of these new regulations.

When asked why it is important for a hospital to have a chief medical information officer (CMIO), Pam Brier, president and CEO of Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., prefers to have the question phrased in a different way: Why is it important to have a physician serve as a CMIO?

Fifteen years ago, a national healthcare debate was raging. It took room-size mainframes to keep a hospital running, and critical information exchange usually happened at land-line speed.

At this time of the year, reflection on times gone by is a natural pastime. Although the pace of change in our world seems to have accelerated to a frantic pace, the end of the year, with its time-honored holidays, allows some of us the reassurance of continuity of traditions, family and peace.

Less than two months after the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force set off a national controversy with its revised recommendations for mammography screening, the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the Society of Breast Imaging (SBI) have issued recommendations calling for breast cancer screening to begin at age 40 and even earlier for high-risk patients.

Thirteen state attorneys general have asked Congress to delete from final healthcare reform legislation a provision contained in the Senates healthcare bill that would exempt Nebraska from having to pay for newly eligible Medicaid recipients.

The FDA and Encompass Group have issued a voluntary recall of the Thermoflect product line for relabeling regarding its use in the MR environment.