Morning Headlines 1/19/15

Official Who Led Medicare Through Insurance Shakeup Is Resigning

CMS administrator Marilyn Tavenner resigns, telling staffers in an email that February will be her last month. Tavenner joined CMS in February 2010, just before President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, and went on to oversee the troubled rollout of Healthcare.gov in October 2013.

Electronic Medical Record Provides Dartmouth-Hitchcock Pathologists Powerful Tool to Push Best Practices in Transfusions

A new EHR alert implemented at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (NH) has significantly reduced the improper use of two-unit blood transfusions for non-bleeding patients.

ER visits still rising despite ACA

At ERs with traditionally high patient volumes, annual visits have only gone up since the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, with one physician speculating that “More people have insurance, but the cultural norm has been to wait until they’re sick to seek care. As they get educated, ER use will go down over a period of years.”

New Department of Biomedical Informatics

Harvard opens a new Department of Biomedical Informatics that will work to leverage new biomedical data streams to develop new methods for research and clinical care. The new department’s advisory board includes digital health pioneer, and Rock Health founder, Halle Tecco.