The State of the Electronic Health Record: The Vendor Perspective
This document reports on a web-based survey of healthcare IT vendors. It provides a benchmark in terms of the state of the EHR and the current environment regarding the awareness and use of industry standards, the barriers and challenges that exist, as well as gauging the current and future needs of software purchasers as they transition from pape to electronic records.

100,000 Lives Campaign: Some is not a number. Soon is not a time.
The 100,000 Lives Campaign aims to enlist thousands of hospitals across the country in a commitment to implement changes in care that have been proven to prevent avoidable deaths. We are starting with these six interventions: * Deploy Rapid Response Teams * Deliver Reliable, Evidence-Based Care for Acute Myocardial Infarction * Prevent Adverse Drug Events (ADEs) * Prevent Central Line Infections * Prevent Surgical Site Infections * Prevent Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia

Bush Chooses EPA Chief, Mike Leavitt, To Lead U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
The surprise selection of Leavitt put another fellow former Republican governor and Bush loyalist into the president's top tier for the second term, supervising an agency that handles some of the most politically sensitive domestic issues.

Hospital panel releases draft of suggestions
The nine-member Commission to Study Maine Hospitals, created by Gov. John Baldacci's Dirigo Health Act of 2003, on Monday released its first public draft of recommendations intended to lower the cost of hospital services while improving quality and access to care. Members of the commission represent hospital administrators, physicians, nurses, insurers, consumers and the business community. One of their recommendations is to: Establish a statewide system of electronic medical records.

New Wireless Weight-Loss Tools Fit in the Palm of Your Hand -- Only Mobile Weight-loss Application that Syncs with Web Account via Internet
Weight Watchers On-the-Go for handheld devices delivers the food lists, tracking and synchronization to help WeightWatchers.com subscribers make smart meal choices anytime, anywhere. It mobilizes essential weight-loss tools to help people on Weight Watchers stay on track, and synchronizes data between the handheld and a Weight Watchers Online or Weight Watchers eTools account.

Canadian Health agency hires IBM to develop system to detect disease, bioterrorism
The Public Health Agency of Canada hopes the system, being developed as a pilot project in Winnipeg, will make it easier to contain outbreaks such as the one that left thousands of residents sick in North Battleford, Saskatchewan in 2001.

Consumer Reports: Best BuyBest Buy Drugs
Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs is a free public education service from the nonprofit Consumers Union. The information on this website can help you learn about more affordable drug treatment options to discuss with your physician.

Stead to lead National Library of Medicine board
William Stead, M.D., associate vice chancellor for Health Affairs and director of the Informatics Center, has been elected chairman of the board of regents of the National Library of Medicine, one of the National Institutes of Health and the world's largest medical library. The NLM is the primary source of funding for biomedical informatics research grants, providing a total of about $60 million in funding, all of which relates in some way to biomedical informatics, the specialty Stead is largely credited with helping pioneer.

Drug-ordering systems technology could save Massachusetts hospitals $275m
The First Consulting Group said it would cost $210 million in one-time start-up expenditures for the 46 Massachusetts hospitals that don't have the systems to install them, or update existing technology to a minimum agreed-upon standard. But, the hospitals would save $275 million annually because the systems reduce errors and, as a result, medical care for unintentional injuries to patients.

Google Print (Beta)
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Since a lot of the world's information isn't yet online, we're helping to get it there. Google Print puts the content of books where you can find it most easily – right in Google search results.