Morning Headlines 6/12/15

Committee Working to Identify Immediate Solutions to Electronic Health Records Program that has Physicians “Terrified”

Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), chairman of the HELP committee charged with evaluating the Meaningful Use program, says at the committees first hearing this week, “Physicians and doctors have said to me that they are literally terrified of the next implementation stage of electronic health records, called Meaningful Use Stage 3, because of its complexity and because of the fines that will be levied. My goal is that before that phase is implemented, we can work with physicians and hospitals and the administration to get the system back on track and make it a tool that hospitals and physicians can look forward to using to help their patients instead of something they dread.”

E-health Progress Still Poor $2 Billion and 14 Years Later

The Canadian Medical Association Journal reports on the country’s largest annual e-health conference, saying that interoperability roadblocks are still hindering improvements. Mike Checkley, conference speaker and president of British Columbia-based QHR Technologies, quipped “Ten years ago, the big topic was interoperability. Ten years later, it’s not a lot different."

Study may help Department of Veteran’s Affairs find patients with high risk of suicide

The VA and NIH co-develop an algorithm that can scan the VA’s electronic medical records and identify patients that have a high suicide risk.

Judy Faulkner’s Giving Pledge

Epic Systems CEO Judy Faulkner signs the Giving Pledge, launched by Warren Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates in 2010, promising to leave 99 percent of her estimated $2.3 billion fortune to charity upon her death or direction.