Continua Health Alliance, a non-profit, open-industry organization of healthcare and technology companies, has announced new additions to its open source clearinghouse to encourage innovation by entrepreneurs, small businesses, students and universities working on health IT projects.

One in five Americans reported visiting an emergency department (ED) at least once in the past year, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findings show America’s increasing reliance on emergency care, according to Andrew E. Sama, MD, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP).  

BATON ROUGE, LA, June 03, 2013 - Louisiana residents enrolled in UnitedHealthcare’s employer-sponsored, MedicareDirect and Evercare/SecureHorizons Medicare Advantage health plans now have access to care provided by Medistar Home Health.

Healthcare reform means a new business model for medicine that puts a premium on patient outcomes instead of services rendered. To gear up for the 2014 implementation of the Affordable Care Act, many physicians are enrolling in pricy online MBAs to prepare themselves for changing reimbursement models that are changing from risk-based to value-based, according to an American Public Media Marketplace report that aired on June 3. Listen to the full story below.

An Australian audit of e-prescribing systems at two major hospitals found that selection of items from drop-down menus triggered the greatest number of system-related errors. The study—published online in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association on May 30—also discovered a high frequency of errors when prescribers were asked to edit information within the system or perform new tasks not previously required.

All-cause, 30-day Medicare readmission rates showed “meaningful decline” in 2012 when compared to readmissions between 2007 and 2011, according to a Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Research Review study published online on May 29. While the trend is welcome news to CMS, study authors cautioned that cause of the apparent reduction remains unclear and merits further investigation.

TripleTree, a provider of merchant banking services, recognized three winners of its 5th Annual iAwards for Connected Health, which award innovators “demonstrating insight, innovation and initiative in healthcare through the convergence of wireless, mobile, cloud and social technologies,” according to its May 30 announcement.

When looking to make a switch in EHR vendors, physicians consider EHR integrated mobile apps as must-haves, according to global research firm Black Book Rankings' survey published on May 30.