The North Carolina Healthcare Information and Communications Alliance (NCHICA) has teamed with Oak Grove Technologies to produce a mobile application version of the HITECH Act Breach Notification Risk Assessment Tool, originally developed by the NCHICA Privacy and Security Officials Workgroup.

Interoperability efforts continue to expand, according to the news from the past month. Recommendations for reporting lab results using Direct Project standards were released and a study found that inviting patients to use an interactive personal health record linked to their clinicians EHR increased their likelihood of receiving preventive care, among other achievements.

To assist critical access hospitals using unlicensed scribes, the Joint Commission published a list of frequently asked questions regarding relevant standards.

With so many available, it can be difficult sorting through libraries of mobile applications (apps) to find those that are useable, useful and appropriate for healthcare settings. To assist healthcare IT departments with mobile app selection and assessment, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society released a guide to evaluating app performance.

Johns Hopkins University has established a new center aimed at improving and expanding the use of EHR systems, e-health and IT. The Johns Hopkins Center for Population Health IT (CPHIT, pronounced "see-fit") will seek to meld faculty expertise in public health, medicine, informatics, computer science, business and systems engineering to focus on helping public health agencies and private healthcare organizations use e-health tools to increase the efficiency and equity of healthcare delivery, according to a release.

A buildup of sodium in the brain detected by MRI may be a biomarker for the degeneration of nerve cells that occurs in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), according to a study published online in Radiology. Several key findings emerged from the study. The researchers found that patients with early-stage MS showed sodium accumulation in specific brain regions, while patients with more advanced disease showed sodium accumulation throughout the whole brain, including in normal-appearing areas. Sodium buildup in motor areas of the brain correlated directly to the degree of disability seen in the advanced-stage patients.

This weeks news again covers a gamut of topics, probably somewhat approaching the range of responsibilities on your to-do lists.

GE Healthcare has been recalling a number of combination ventilator-anesthesia machines since April over concerns the devices may overdose patients on inhaled anesthetics, according to a July 11 notice from the FDA.