Because It Remains Tough to Achieve Interoperability among EHRs, Congress is Proposing Legislation to Resolve That Issue in Ways That May Help Medical Laboratories

One new federal law forbids health IT vendors and providers from deliberately blocking information-sharing with competing EHR systems Several years deep into its effort to get physicians and hospitals to use electronic health record (EHR) systems, the federal government has yet to come up with a way to improve interoperability—the ability of EHRs to interface and communicate with other systems. Stage one and stage two Meaningful Use guidelines have failed to successfully address the barriers...

Obama’s $215 Million Precision Medicine Initiative: Will Congress Fund It and Can It Advance Genetic Testing and the Value of Clinical Laboratory Services?

As proposed, the President’s Precision Medicine Initiative would incorporate a large, volunteer study cohort in innovative ways Even as a new presidential initiative to boost precision medicine makes headlines, there is uncertainty as to how the program can be funded. The Precision Medicine Initiative was announced by President Obama on January 30, 2015. Many pathologists, clinical chemists, and medical laboratory scientists recognize that such a program would pump additional funds into the...

Recognizing Inconsistency in EHR Lab Test Orders, Vendors Introduce Software to Improve Clinical Pathology Laboratory Test Ordering and Results Reporting

To solve this problem, clinical laboratories can contract with best in class vendors that will put screens on orders and results that filter out inconsistencies In recent weeks the Department of Health and Human Services announced that more than 50% of doctors and 80% of eligible hospitals would be using electronic health record (EHR) systems by the end of 2013. Although federal officials are celebrating this accomplishment, for the clinical laboratory testing industry, EHR adoption, at best,...
;