[View the story "Topics For This Week’s #HITsm TweetChat, Feb. 3, 11 a.m. CT" on Storify]

In December 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released the names of 32 health organizations selected to participate in their Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (ACO) model, which launched just over one month ago on Jan. 1. Chosen from 80 applicants, these 32 Pioneer ACOs are testing several new payment arrangements, which [...]

With Meaningful Use requirements, connecting to Health Information Exchanges, coordinating data flow in Accountable Care Organizations, updating devices to ICD-10 codes and general interoperability projects, there is a tremendous amount of work going on in Health IT. With very significant deadlines to accomplish these vital initiatives, it would be easy for IT managers to develop [...]

After Block 1 was completed, the white coat ceremony was held. This is where I received the coat that I will wear throughout medical school. It was exciting to get my first white coat, as was seeing my fellow friends get “coated” and meeting everyone’s family. Also, after Block 1 ended, we started the cadaver [...]

Several questions can arise when considering whether to parse the data of a CCD document from a remote facility and merge it into the local EHR. HIEs are spurring increased emphasis on the use of CCD documents to exchange information among facilities, so it would be ideal to have consistent practices regarding the merging of [...]

Join us online Friday, Jan. 19 at 11 a.m., CT, for a “Special Edition” of our weekly #HITsm TweetChat. We asked the Colin Konschak, Shane Danaher and Phillip Felt from DIVURGENT, a national healthcare consultanting firm with offices in Dallas and Virginia Beach, Va., to join us for this week’s chat and to help develop [...]

Already abandoned your New Year resolutions? We have a hard time changing our behavior. By now, approximately 60 percent of us have already abandoned our New Year resolutions. One study shows that 35 percent of those who made resolutions, never even started them. Not surprisingly, the most popular resolutions are health related — for weight [...]

The IHE Connectathon event for 2012 was held in Chicago last week. Connectathon allows vendors from healthcare IT to test their ability to support IHE profiles, which are critical to standardizing communications across HIEs, ACOs, and across regions. Here are a few observations from my first-time participation at Connectathon: Industry Buy-in It was apparent from [...]

As an author of a book focused on planning for Accountable Care Organizations, I’ve heard from all too many providers and consultants who believe the concept will never take off. Although I remain cautiously optimistic about this new care delivery model, I am very much looking forward to the results of the Pioneer ACO program. [...]

Join us online Friday, Jan. 13 at 11 a.m., CT, for a “Special Edition” of our weekly #HITsm TweetChat. We collaborated with HIMSS (Heathcare Information and Management Systems Society) staff members to develop this week’s topics to help provide information to the Twitter community and to help build momentum for their upcoming 2012 annual conference, [...]