In the News

The Era Of Electronic Medical Records: EMRs May Be Finally Coming To A Hospital Or Doctor Near You -- (July 18, 2011) -- "Twenty years ago the influential Institute of Medicine began prodding the medical community to embrace electronic medical records. EMRs would make healthcare better, safer, and more efficient, argued the IOM, if every person's complete medical history was stored on computers linked up across the country. Clinicians anywhere could view a patient's every blood test, hospital stay, and X-ray; smart software would guide diagnoses. In hospitals, prescribed drugs and doses would be computer-vetted against each patient to forestall life-threatening medication errors. The medical community's general reaction: great idea, but difficult and expensive. As the years passed, hospitals did gradually adopt "computerized physician order entry" for prescriptions, but otherwise marriages between computers and healthcare largely took place in billing departments and other back offices."

Proposed Rule On E-Rx Incentive Program Offers Some Relief -- (July 9, 2011) -- "In response to loud complaints from a variety of health care provider groups, CMS has issued a proposed rule that would modify its electronic prescribing incentive program."

Medicare Now Accepting Meaningful Use Data -- (May 2011) -- "Physicians can now send data to the federal government to qualify for thousands of dollars in bonus payments under the new Medicare electronic health record incentive program."

Attestation Begins For Medicare's 'Meaningful Use' Program -- (April 18, 2011) -- "Starting April 18, physicians could begin sending data to the federal government to qualify for thousands of dollars in bonus payments under the new Medicare electronic health record incentive program."

ANALYSIS: Managing Technology Doctors Go Digital -- (April 1, 2011) -- "Stimulus payments are putting e-records within reach for many health care providers. For more than a decade, federal health officials have tried to persuade doctors and hospitals to abandon paper and switch to electronic health records, but it's been a tough sell. The cost of equipment and training, the hassle of digitizing paper records, and uncertainty about how well information technology systems actually will work have stymied progress."

Health Care Industry Making Gradual Change To Digital Recordkeeping -- (March 21, 2011) -- "Too often, Leah Stanley shows up at a doctor's office or hospital feeling lousy. And she must, yet again, detail the 17 medicines she takes."

Primary Care Societies Give Outgoing National Health IT Chief High Marks -- (February 15, 2011) -- Washington -- "The outgoing director of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology did a good job of adjusting federal health IT goals to meet conditions in physician practices and focusing technology on improving clinical outcomes, according to representatives of at least two national primary care medical societies."

Archive

AAFP Joins With Payers And Employers To Improve Technology's Impact On Medication Safety -- (Aug. 2007) -- SureScripts, founded by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) and the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), today announced that it is collaborating with the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), Humana Inc., Intel Corporation and the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) to launch The Center for Improving Medication Management.

AAFP Invites Health Information Technology Industry to Join National HIT Campaign in Response to Need for Standard, Portable, Electronic Health Records Before, During and After Disasters -- (Sep. 12, 2005) -- In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) is calling on the health information technology (HIT) industry to support the need for all Americans and health care providers to have access to summary health information during times of crisis...

AAFP Backs Reps. Kennedy & Murphy's 21st Century Health Information Act to Transform Health Care -- (May 12, 2005) -- David Kibbe, MD, director of the AAFP's Center for Health Information Technology announces support for a bill that would "dramatically increase the use of information technology (IT) to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of health care."

EHR Pilot Project Shows ASP Model Has Benefits for Small Physician Practices -- (Mar. 8, 2005) -- Key learnings from the conclusion of the AAFP's EHR Pilot Project.

Electronic Health Record Systems Becoming More Affordable for Small Group Practices, Finds AAFP Survey -- (Mar. 1, 2005) -- The AAFP's Center for Health Information Technology releases the results of its first vendor survey.