Physicians making the transition from conventional practices to patient-centered medical homes will need to master organizational learning and develop an awareness that they may need a three to five year commitment, according to an article in the March edition of Health Affairs.

Physicians in West Michigan will get help transitioning to EHRs and qualifying for federal incentive dollars due to a partnership with the Physician Organization of Michigan (POM) and the Michigan Center for Effective IT Adoption (M-CEITA).

Voice and data linkages in a telemedicine system permit services to be provided remotely, potentially increasing both the speed and the capacity of medical response and making it available when and where it is needed. Thus, in a disaster situation, a regional telemedicine hub that links a central command center with a network of clinical experts may expedite disaster response and improve patient outcomes, according to a study in the Journal of Medical Systems.

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones has decided to intervene in a "qui tam" (whistleblower) lawsuit against Bristol Myers-Squibb (BMS). The lawsuit is the largest health insurance fraud case ever pursued by a California state agency.

The American National Standards Institute and Shared Assessments Program have launched a project to explore the financial impact of unauthorized protected health information (PHI) access.

A consortium of California health organizations is seeking entries for the Southern California Healthcare Technology Acceleration Program.

Software developer company Diversinet has unveiled its Clinical Communicator application for health IT professionals to communicate with patients remotely via mobile devices and tablets.

GenoThreat, a tool designed to minimize the potential risks of synthetic biology for the nation's defense and security, is now available to the gene synthesis industry and synthetic biology community in an open-source format.