Stanford Medical Informatics Seminar: TOWARDS A NATIONAL MODEL FOR THE ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD - David J. Brailer MD, PhD - National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
Ever wonder what it would be like to attend a Medical Informatics Seminar at Stanford? Just click and you're back in Grad School...with nothing to do but think about informatics all day (and night) long!

Medical Errors and Technology
In his State of the Union address this week, President Bush included a call for new technologies in health care, including "improved information technology to prevent medical error and needless costs." NPR's Talk of the Nation featuring Lucian Leape, William Hersh, Joseph Heyman

Policy on Enhancing Public Access to Archived Publications Resulting from NIH-Funded Research
Beginning May 2, 2005, NIH-funded investigators are requested to submit to the NIH National Library of Medicine's (NLM) PubMed Central (PMC) an electronic version of the author's final manuscript upon acceptance for publication, resulting from research supported, in whole or in part, with direct costs1 from NIH.

Do online information retrieval systems help experienced clinicians answer clinical questions?
The use of an online information retrieval system was associated with a significant improvement in the quality of answers provided by clinicians to typical clinical problems. In a small proportion of cases use of the system produced errors. While there was variation in the performance of clinical groups when answering questions unaided, performance did not differ significantly following system use.

Saint Thomas trying smart cards to hold records
The cards have a computer chip for storing data, including the medications a person takes, and are protected by personal identification numbers. Saint Thomas is paying $2 to $3 per card.

Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission announces ELECTRONIC TRANSACTIONS CRITERIA For e-Script
The material was developed by the Maryland Health Care Commission’s E-Script Focus Group in conjunction with EHNAC (Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission). (Note in case you were wondering: "EHNAC accredits entities engaged in ehealth activities of electronic healthcare transactions and management of healthcare information on their ability to meet high quality performance standards in the areas of privacy, security, technical performance, and business practice."