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Many Ontario physicians still allergic to electronic records

Mar. 4--E-health in Ontario has certainly made great strides from where it was just a few years ago. But industry experts are not ready to celebrate yet. …despite undeniable advances, resistance to digitized patient information still remains quite high among the province's healthcare practitioners. More…

Gene Map Becomes a Luxury Item

Mar. 4--On a cold day in January, Dan Stoicescu, a millionaire living in Switzerland, became the second person in the world to buy the full sequence of his own genetic code. He is also among a relatively small group of individuals who could afford the $350,000 price tag. More..

HIMSS 2008: Carrot and Stick Approach

Mar. 4--Partners Community Healthcare faced a common problem with its physician members. Beyond the members of Partners' academic medical center group practice, adoption of EMR technology was low. The AMC members used the Boston-based healthcare organization's own homegrown system, but primary care physicians lagged in technology adoption throughout the vast community setting Partners encompasses.
Yet, through a combination of carrots and sticks, Partners is on course for 100 percent EMR adoption by its 6,000 affiliated physicians by the end of 2009. More…

HIMSS 2008--Allina on a Roll

Mar. 4--One piece of conventional wisdom around healthcare IT implementations is that "big bang" deployments--the rapid, broad conversion to new systems--are too risky. However, for Allina Hospitals and Clinics, an 11-hospital, $2.53 billion integrated delivery system based in Minneapolis, the big bang approach has worked well. More…

CyberKnife offers new cancer therapy at FMH

Mar. 4--Imagine taking a break for an hour. You kick back on a couch, your favorite music playing on the stereo in the corner, wearing the same comfy clothes you put on this morning.
Now add to that vision a robotic arm directing radiation directly into a tumor in your lung, and you have the newest cancer therapy at Frederick Memorial Hospital. More…

States Get Help Expanding Telemedicine

Mar. 4--Modern technology allows specialists at major medical centers to diagnose and monitor faraway patients by remotely reviewing their records, analyzing medical images and consulting with them and their local physicians using high-tech video teleconferencing. In the future, doctors even expect to perform long-distance surgery using robotics. More…

After the beep, please record your hand hygiene

Mar. 3-- Coupons for doughnuts have been tried, as have flashy posters. Now, researchers may have found the answer to the maddening problem of getting health care workers to wash their hands - and it comes in the form of a beep.
A new technology created by Toronto researchers, to be on the market as early as a year from now, would equip doctors, nurses and others involved in direct patient care, with a small sensor attached to their identification lanyard.
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