RFID is not safe - AMA Report
Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are computer chips connected to miniature antennae that can be used to transmit information electronically via a proximate RFID reader. The use of these devices in health care represents another promising development in information technology, but also raises important ethical, legal and social issues. Specifically, the use of RFID labeling in humans for medical purposes may improve patient safety, but also may pose some physical risks, compromise patient privacy, or present other social hazards.

AMA delegates discuss best ways to go paperless
Experts agreed that widespread adoption of electronic medical records is inevitable, but—during a symposium entitled Health Information Technology: Is It Help or Hype?—there was disagreement on the best way to wean a medical practice off its paper record system. One option included: "Scan everything!!!" the organization should "hire every college kid in town" to scan old paper charts into the new electronic system. "It is expensive and it is necessary, and all this has to occur before you let the physicians get near the system." A few weeks after everything is scanned and the EMR system is up and running, McAneny recommends shredding the paper records. "There is no going back," she warned, adding that the old file space at her organization is now being used as clinical space. Read on for other options...

Patient Access to an Electronic Health Record With Secure Messaging: Impact on Primary Care Utilization
Annual adult primary care outpatient visit rates decreased by 6.7% to 9.7% for members using KP HealthConnect™ Online, and these members had a smaller increase in documented telephone contacts (16.2%) than the control group (29.9%).

National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) Data Elements Data Dissemination Information for Providers
The list below is the data that CMS will be disclosing, if the data exist in a provider’s NPPES record. Providers who furnished these data elements may update or change them in NPPES at any time.

Journal Info: a journal selection aid for researchers' interested in publication
People are always asking me "where should I publish this paper?" Well, check out this site to find out some information on potential options. The site allows you to look up information on your favorite scientific journal or discover a new one.

Use of the Internet to Communicate with Health Care Providers in the United States: Estimates from the 2003 and 2005 Health Information National Trends Surveys (HINTS)
In 2003, 7% of Internet users had communicated online with an health care provider; this prevalence significantly increased to 10% in 2005. In multivariate analyses, Internet users with more years of education, who lived in a metro area, who reported poorer health status or who had a personal history of cancer were more likely to have used online patient-provider communication.

Systems and methods for manipulating medical data via a decision support system
Disclosed is a method for delivering decision-supported patient data to a clinician to aid the clinician with the diagnosis and treatment of a medical condition. The method including presenting a patient with questions generated by a decision-support module and gathering patient data indicative of the responses to the questions.

System, method, and computer program for interfacing an expert system to a clinical information system
A method and computer program for interfacing an expert system to a one or more clinical information systems is described.

Register Now for A National Web Conference on Evaluating Smart Forms and Quality Dashboards in an Electronic Medical Record
Discusses outcomes of an AHRQ-funded project that integrated clinical decision support (CDS) technologies into physician documentation workflow and performance feedback. Also discussed is the transformation of the Partners Healthcare informatics infrastructure, a re-tooling of the organization's CDS platforms and middleware.