Health IT security more than HIPAA compliance

With the recent Anthem security breach, healthcare information security has once again taken center stage. With congress scrutinizing HIE security plans PARCA eNews talked with Cris V. Ewell, PhD, the Chief Information Security Officer at Seattle Children’s, about security. Seattle Children’s is a not-for-profit pediatric hospital, academic medical center, and research institute. Dr. Ewell has full strategic and operational oversight for building and managing the information security framework, teams, programs, and policies. He is a frequent speaker at healthcare industry privacy and information security forums and

HIMSS15 set to begin April 12

Save the Date! 

Apr 12 – 16, 2015 Central Time

Chicago, McCormick Place

HIMSS Annual Conference is the largest health IT event in the industry. Nearly 38,000 attendees came to Orlando for HIMSS14. Healthcare IT professionals, clinicians and executives from around the world will gather to explore the value of health IT through education, networking and solutions – discovering new ways to advance innovation, make a greater impact and improve outcomes.

Draft bill aims to improve interoperability

PARCA eNews – Mar. 13, 2015 – Draft legislation was circulated last week entitled Ensuring Interoperability of Qualified Health Records aimed at enhancing nationwide progress toward interoperabiltiy.  It defines interoperability as a qualified electronic health record that must satisfy the following criteria: open access, complete access to health data, does not block access to other qualified electronic health records, and asks for additional recommendations. Among its provisions, the bill:

Office of Cybersecurity and Communications public meeting

PARCA eNews – Mar. 6, 2015 –The Office of Cybersecurity and Communications department of Homeland Security held a public meeting on March 18, 2015 regarding cybersecurity information sharing, Information Sharing and Analysis Organizations (ISAO’s), and the Executive Order, “Promoting Private Sector Cybersecurity Information Sharing,” that was signed by President Obama on Feb. 13, 2015. 

A pair of presentations at ECR 2015 show off REMS software

PARCA eNews – Mar. 5, 2015 – Successful connection of various vendor's radiation producing equipment to Radiation Exposure Monitoring Systems (REMS) is a challenge and integration into hospital or radiology information systems (HIS/RIS) introduces further layers of difficulty. 

As Aunt Minnie writer Erik Ridley reports, an Irish research group showed that a web-based dose tracking software could track and analyze CT studies, while German group showed that a cloud-based system using DICOM structured reports was a feasible alternative for dose tracking. 

Joint Health IT Policy and Standards Committee issues MU update

PARCA eNews – Feb. 20, 2015 – The Joint Health IT Policy and Standards committee reported that through December 2014, 90 percent of eligible hospitals had attested to meaningful use of certified technology. Of those that attested between 2011– 2013, more than 90 percent returned to the Incentive Program in subsequent years. 

The road ahead for PACS Administrators in 2015

Josh Baker, Director of Operations for ThinAir Data Corporation

2015 is poised to be a pivotal year as the move from PACS systems to enterprise imaging picks up steam and begins to transform what it means to be a PACS administrator. Josh Baker, Director of Operations for ThinAir Data Corporation has seen multiple transformations in information and imaging technology over his 17-year career. In addition to managing such transformations, he has co-written and edited with Herman Oosterwijk multiple course books and study guides for OTech, Inc., as well as PARCA certification tests. PARCA eNews asked him to share his perspectives on what PACS administrators might expect in the coming year.

ONC issues draft Roadmap for nationwide health IT Interoperability

PARCA eNews – Jan. 30, 2015 – The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) today released its draft roadmap to interoperability.

The document, “Connecting Health and Care for the Nation: A Shared Nationwide Interoperability Roadmap Version 1.0,” is a proposal to deliver better care and result in healthier people through the safe and secure exchange and use of electronic health information.

ONC Annual Meeting

Click image to view video

PARCA eNews – Feb. 5, 2015 – The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) held its 2015 Annual Meeting Feb. 2-3, 2015, at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C. The meeting gathered over 1,000 health IT partners for two days of presentations and breakout sessions. The Annual Meeting was webcasted on Feb. 2, 2015 and many of the sessions were video recorded. If you missed either the meeting or the webcast, many of the talks are available online to view at your convenience. 

Survey says referring physicians prefer multi-media reports

Photo courtesy: Biomorphdesk.com

PARCA eNews – Feb. 12, 2015 – PACS administrators need to get ready for MERR, or multi-media enhanced radiology reports, if a new survey of referring physicians is any indication of where radiology reports are heading.

In a 22 question survey of 402 referring physicians in the Jan. 29, Journal of the American College of Radiology, 86 percent of the respondents reported “improved understanding of radiology findings by correlating images to text reports” and 79 percent  reported “easier access to images while monitoring progression of a disease/condition” would be advantages of MERR.