Dear Healthcare IT Insider,
The U.S. federal government's Johnny-come-lately scramble to motivate its privatized healthcare system to catch up with the 21st century in terms of electronic health IT use has generated a lot of media attention and scrutiny.
What AuntMinnie.com finds interesting is that the agency overseeing this multibillion-dollar initiative, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), doesn't seem to be aware that hospital radiology departments and radiology private practices are among the most wired of all physician specialties.
Healthcare IT products need to be certified by ONC-appointed organizations, and there have been many questions about this. ONC recently answered 20 of the most commonly asked ones, and even responded to the question we submitted: "What about RIS and PACS?" Click here to read ONC's comment.
In the sluggish global economy, the healthcare IT industry seems to be one of the few areas with great growth potential and profitability. Senior editor Erik L. Ridley reports on the growth in the U.S. cardiology IT market segment.
Meanwhile, market research firm KLAS reports on a spurt in electronic medical record systems and a focus on hospitals' acquisition of RIS: Click here and here for details. Another report predicts the doubling of RIS/PACS sales in Europe. The picture isn't so upbeat for oncology information systems, however.
Moving on from reports, this newsletter's Insider Exclusive focuses on the pragmatic: an efficient, economical way for radiologists to make referring physicians aware of important but nonurgent abnormal findings. This is an IT innovation any hospital could implement. Read about it by clicking here.
And be sure to scroll down for even more news in your Healthcare IT Digital Community.
