Paper records more secure: survey
Survey participants also were asked whether they agree or disagree with the following statement: "The benefits of electronic medical records, such as better treatment in an emergency and a reduction in medical errors outweigh any potential risk to patient privacy or the security of patient information." Their answers: 21% indicated they strongly agree, 52% somewhat agree, 16% somewhat disagree, 9% strongly disagree and 2% indicated they didn’t know or were unsure.

Using an interactive voice response system to improve patient safety following hospital discharge
Patients often experience complications when transitioning from hospital to home. These complications are frequently related to poor monitoring. Using an IVRS, we were able to identify several important new health concerns arising following hospital discharge.

IRS ruling allows hospitals to provide healthcare IT to physicians
The IRS issued a memorandum indicating that it would not consider such donations of IT and supporting services as kickbacks that would jeopardize healthcare providers’ not-for-profit status. The IRS "will not treat the benefits a hospital provides to its medical staff physicians as impermissible private benefits or inurement in violation of section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code if the benefits fall within the range of health IT items and services that are permissible under the HHS EHR regulations".

Encryption Characteristics of Two USB-based Personal Health Record Devices
We reviewed two small USB-based PHR devices which allow a patient to easily store and transport their personal health information. This paper describes the weaknesses we discovered, outlines three critical flaws with the security model used by the devices, and recommends four guidelines for improving the security of similar devices.

Randomized Trial to Improve Prescribing Safety During Pregnancy
To determine whether a computerized tool that alerted pharmacists when pregnant patients were prescribed US FDA pregnancy risk category D or X medications was effective in decreasing dispensings of these medications. Coupling data from information systems with knowledge and skills of physicians and pharmacists resulted in improved prescribing safety. The study was stopped primarily due to two false positive alert types: misidentification of medications as contraindicated in pregnancy by the pharmacy information system and misidentification of pregnancy related to delayed transfer of diagnosis information.

Lifecom Completes Phase 1 Clinical Trial of its artificial intelligence and graphical medical record system at OHSU
Patients with a defined range of chief complaints were evaluated by a medical assistant who had been given only two hours of training. The Lifecom System accepts any data in any order, and presents questions based on the input data and its knowledge repository to refine the diagnosis. Patients were then diagnosed by a physician who did not have access to the Lifecom System diagnostic results or questions. The diagnosis considered most likely by the Lifecom System agreed with the physician’s diagnosis in 91 percent of the cases.