Profile of Paul Cerrato

News & Commentary Posts: 139

Paul Cerrato has worked as a healthcare editor and writer for 30 years, including for InformationWeek Healthcare, Contemporary OBGYN, RN magazine and Advancing OBGYN, published by the Yale University School of Medicine. He has been extensively published in business and medical literature, including Business and Health and the Journal of the American Medical Association. He has also lectured at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons and Westchester Medical Center.

Articles by Paul Cerrato

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Event-Driven Medicine Holds Great Promise

12/16/2014
Research shows that wearables and biosensors can help clinicians collect enough data to pinpoint the abnormalities in a patient's biomarkers that require attention.
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Innovation Favors The Subversive Mind

10/28/2014
Health IT leaders need a fearless, irreverent mindset to reinvent patient care.
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Mend The Broken Doctor-Patient Relationship

10/14/2014
Americans have lost faith in the healthcare industry. A more realistic view of the profession, coupled with the right technology, can help restore that trust.
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Will Social Media Revolutionize Healthcare?

9/19/2014
Without a doubt. In fact, several medical providers and IT vendors are plowing ahead already.
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IT-Enhanced Care Coordination Really Works

9/11/2014
The fact that it doesn't always cut costs shouldn't stop healthcare providers from pushing ahead.
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Healthcare Big Data: Blessing And Curse

8/12/2014
Interpreting government-released healthcare data correctly will pose a massive challenge for analysts, policy makers, and pundits.
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Meaningful Use EHR Audits: When, Not If

7/22/2014
So your organization has accepted the feds' financial incentive. Now it's time to prove you're entitled to it.
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Healthcare Data Analytics Gone Wrong

7/1/2014
Healthcare providers need to keep their eye on the right patients as they look for ways to boost revenue and reduce risk.
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Hillary Clinton: Cooperation, Technology Will Solve Big Healthcare Issues

2/27/2014
Genuine healthcare reform is possible only when all stakeholders leave their blaming, shaming, and ideology at the door, Clinton tells HIMSS conference attendees.
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Let's Build A Healthcare IT System For Technophobes

1/22/2014
We need more fearless software designers who think like regular folks.
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Clinical Decision Support Needs To Get Smarter

1/9/2014
Stage 2 Meaningful Use requires providers to use clinical decision support, but most hospitals and practices aren’t even doing the bare minimum to obtain financial incentives.
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8 Healthcare Startups Catch Fire

12/30/2013
Here's a look at some of the most innovative healthcare startups and health apps featured at the NYeC Digital Health Conference and the Connected Health Symposium.
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Seeking Secure Health Information Exchange

12/4/2013
The New York eHealth Collaborative is among several forward thinking organizations that are helping make HIEs private and secure.
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Patient Portals Aren't Very Patient Centric

11/21/2013
It's time to put some excitement and creativity into e-patient education.
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Barriers To Telemedicine Slowly Crumble

11/15/2013
A few courageous providers and insurers are seeing the value of treating patients in cyberspace. We need more risk takers.
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Barriers To Health Information Exchange

11/8/2013
In order to achieve true interoperability, patients' need for better data sharing must come before the interests of providers, vendors and regulators.
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When Smartphones Do Dumb Things

10/25/2013
Mobile health apps are slowly revolutionizing patient care, but occasionally the revolution takes a left turn into lunacy and feeds a hypochondriac's worst fears.
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A Painless Path To CPOE?

10/21/2013
Despite evidence that computerized provider order entry systems can improve patient care, many providers have resisted due to cost and tech concerns. New KLAS report suggests an easier route.
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Patient Engagement: How To Do It Right

10/14/2013
Some healthcare providers have figured out the best set of IT tools to get patients more involved in their own care.
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What's Holding Back The Mobile Health Revolution?

10/1/2013
Many believe clinicians reject patient-oriented health apps because they threaten doctors' power. But that's a gross overgeneralization.
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Will EHRs Ever Help Small Practices?

9/26/2013
So far, evidence suggests that health IT benefits mostly hospitals and practices with deep pockets. That could change if small practices get more EHR training.
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EHRs Are Not A 'Digital Menace'

9/18/2013
Healthcare IT can compromise patient safety, but studies show that lack of it may present an even greater risk.
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How Mature Is Your Hospital Business Intelligence System?

9/6/2013
Four-step model helps healthcare providers determine how sophisticated their data analytics systems are -- and how far they have to travel.
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Why Physicians Don't Like Big Data

8/20/2013
It limits their options. That's not always bad.
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EHR Roulette: Gambling On Medicine's Future

8/6/2013
As medical practices look to replace clunky ambulatory electronic health records systems, picking a winner can seem like risky business.
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Stop Crippling Telemedicine

7/16/2013
Remote patient monitoring is ready to reinvent routine healthcare tasks. So what are we waiting for?
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Can Data-Powered Comparative Effectiveness Research Save Healthcare?

6/26/2013
Mounting evidence suggests CER will deliver new, cost-effective treatment options. But at least one controversial problem needs to be resolved first.
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IT Can't Fix Complex Healthcare Problems

6/20/2013
It took the U.S. healthcare system decades to dig the hole it's in. We'll need more than technological innovations to dig out.
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What Two Healthcare Visionaries Get Right And Wrong

6/10/2013
Personalized medicine will become reality, but why do we think technology will motivate people to start taking care of their own health?
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Healthcare IT: Savior Or Sinkhole?

1/11/2013
Latest RAND report suggests we might be throwing taxpayer dollars away on EHRs and other healthcare IT systems.
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When To Ignore That Mobile Health App

1/3/2013
Patients and clinicians need to be aware of all the digital snake oil cluttering up the iTunes store.
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7 Big Data Solutions Try To Reshape Healthcare

12/18/2012
Big data medicine is still largely unproven, but that's not stopping several medical centers and analytics vendors from jumping in with both feet.
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Halamka Knows Perils And Promise Of Healthcare BYOD

12/13/2012
One of the nation's top healthcare CIOs discusses Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center's $200K project to secure personal devices used for work.
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5 Healthcare IT Resolutions For 2013

12/7/2012
CPOE and clinical decision support won't help you get in shape or spend more time with the family, but they should be among your New Year's priorities.
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Safety, Technology, Anger And Hope

11/30/2012
America's patient safety record is a source of embarrassment that angers both clinicians and patients. The right IT tools can help mitigate the danger to life and limb.
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BYOD: Is Mobile Device Management The Answer?

11/19/2012
With so many doctors bringing their smartphones and tablets to work and patient data breaches reported all the time, IT managers need to make the right choices.
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Health IT: How Not To Get Hired

11/8/2012
Brains aren't enough to land that dream job. Humility and a willingness to learn are just as crucial.
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National Health Information Exchange: Why The Delay?

11/5/2012
Hurricane Sandy took many lives and caused billions of dollars in damage. But so does a healthcare system that still refuses to embrace interoperability.
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Big Data Analytics: Where's The ROI?

11/1/2012
Not everyone is impressed with the latest health IT megatrend. At least one prominent critic says payment reform should take precedence.
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IBM Watson Finally Graduates Medical School

10/23/2012
Partnership with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center suggests IBM's supercomputer is ready to help oncologists manage their most challenging cases.
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Patient Engagement: One Secret To True Healthcare Reform

10/16/2012
Genuine healthcare reform can't happen until facilities and doctors get patients more involved in their own care. To do that, patients need fast access to more data.
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Meaningful Use Needs Mobile Magic

10/8/2012
Mobile technology could play a huge role in meeting the federal MU regulations, but the Stage 2 rulebook virtually ignores this potential.
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EHR Savings Debate Grows

9/28/2012
Credible sources are raising serious concerns about the value of health IT. Some, but not all, of their criticism is warranted.
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Accountable Care: IT Gets Us Only Halfway There

9/24/2012
Accountable care organizations rely on software tools to deliver cost-effective care. But ACOs may be built on a shaky foundation.
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Can IT Cure Healthcare's Inertia?

9/17/2012
If the industry remains resistant to change, it will eventually render itself obsolete.
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Atrius Health Champions Interoperability

9/7/2012
This large Massachusetts group practice has made medical data exchange a top priority by establishing a centralized Web portal with area hospitals.
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Medication Alert Fatigue Is Curable

9/6/2012
Medication alerts are supposed to ensure patient safety, but clinicians ignore them when bombarded with too many. This dilemma needs to be solved.
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Children's Medical Center Dallas Gets Social

9/5/2012
Social network lets patients and their families share stories and support one another.
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Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Embraces Analytics

9/5/2012
BIDMC, the No. 1 company in the InformationWeek 500, gives more clinicians access to faster queries.
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Top 10 Healthcare IT Innovators For 2012

8/30/2012
Among 10 IT teams transforming parts of the U.S. healthcare system, you'll find important lessons in innovation and persistence.
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5 Trends Will Reshape Health IT In 2013

8/27/2012
Look for growth in mobile health, telemedicine, clinical analytics, and personal health records—and an EHR vendor shakeout.
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Health IT's Next Big Challenge: Comparative Effectiveness Research

8/20/2012
Innovative approach to medical data analysis can yield new treatment options at a lower cost.
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Overworked EHR Vendors Not Big On Tech Support

8/6/2012
Don't expect much help after signing on the dotted line for a new electronic help record system. EHR vendors' resources are stretched thin as they struggle to meet demand, and you'll have to find ways to fill the inevitable gaps in support and employee training.
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Is Population Health Management Latest Health IT Fad?

7/30/2012
Several thought leaders are pushing the PHM approach to healthcare, but we need more sophisticated EHRs and clinical analytics systems to make it a reality.
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When Medical Informatics Clashes With Medical Culture

7/19/2012
What's the sense of having IT systems in place that can help cut medical costs if physicians ignore the price tag of the care they provide?
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Personalized Medicine Will Transform Healthcare

7/16/2012
As healthcare providers incorporate deep analytics and advanced clinical decision support into everyday practice, they'll turn standardized medicine into personalized medicine.
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How To Break Into Healthcare IT

7/11/2012
University degrees and certificate training both are valuable, but you must think strategically when choosing between them.
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Patient Engagement Requires Right IT Tools

7/2/2012
Federal and private policy makers are insisting that healthcare providers get patients more involved in their own care, but that's not going to happen without a careful analysis of your IT strategy.
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Obamacare Victory Spells More Work For Healthcare CIOs

6/28/2012
CIOs and CMIOs can expect many more sleepless nights now that the Supreme Court has upheld the Affordable Care Act.
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Health IT Can Learn From Past Screw-Ups

6/25/2012
U.S. healthcare system will remain broken unless we redesign our tools and rethink our mindset.
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When Smart Mobile Technology Meets Good Science

6/18/2012
Tablets, smartphones, and mobile apps have the potential to improve patient care--but without quality clinical research to back them up, you may be wasting your IT budget.
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Mobile Health Revolution: Doctors And Patients Disagree

6/12/2012
Many doctors frown on consumers' interest in mobile health, says PwC report. But that's only half the story.
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EHRs Aren't Ready For Pay For Performance

6/6/2012
Meeting the pay for performance challenge requires more sophisticated capabilities in EHRs and more physician cooperation.
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E-Prescribing Systems Still Finding Their Mojo

5/25/2012
Latest stats suggest doctors are smitten with e-prescribing, but training and clinical decision support still needed.
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Grow Your Own Health Information Exchange

5/25/2012
While many healthcare organizations turn to private vendors to set up HIEs, others get good results by building their own.
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Mobile Medical Apps Gold Rush Needs Scrutiny

5/16/2012
The problem with this kind of booming market? It attracts not only the best and brightest but also IT developers looking for quick profits with minimal investment of resources.
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Stage 2 EHRs Require Meaningful Patient Engagement

5/14/2012
Many of the government’s proposed Stage 2 Meaningful Use criteria for e- health records won't be easy to meet. Here's how providers are meeting the challenge.
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How To Ease EHR Frustration

5/4/2012
EHRs can slow physicians' practices to a crawl, but evidence suggests they ultimately pay off.
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So What Was Wrong With ICD-9?

4/30/2012
As your IT team makes the transition to the ICD-10 medical coding system, doctors will insist that the older system worked just fine. Here's your comeback.
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3 IT Tools Helping Patients Find Clinical Trials

4/25/2012
We hear so much about the transformative power of medical informatics, and no doubt some of it is more hype than reality. These three examples are the real deal.
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Clinicians Need Unconventional IT Tools For Toughest Cases

4/19/2012
Providing quality care for difficult-to-treat patients requires some truly disruptive approaches.
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Despite Flaws, Personal Health Records Are Smart Medicine

4/16/2012
Many consumers have concerns about data breaches; others complain about "Big Brother" watching. Here's my take on why the benefits of PHRs outweigh the risks.
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Is Your Clinical Decision Support Built On Quicksand?

4/4/2012
If a CDS system isn't based on rock-solid data, don't expect to see better patient outcomes or long-term cost savings.
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Telemedicine Dilemma: Savings Or Healing Hands More Important?

4/2/2012
Telemedicine has two sides, cutting costs and giving some patients access to previously unreachable expertise, but depriving others of the hands-on human contact they need.
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Is That Healthcare Website Making You Sick?

3/28/2012
Many healthcare websites provide valuable information that can help prepare you for the next doctor's visit. But some serve up misinformation that just might land you in the hospital. Here's how to tell the difference.
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Interoperability Nirvana Nowhere In Sight

3/27/2012
Despite attempts to find a common standard for healthcare data communications, it still feels like the Tower of Babel.
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Smarter Voice Capabilities Will Transform Medical Documentation

3/20/2012
Natural language processing combined with voice recognition produces clinical language understanding, which has the potential to profoundly change how information gets into clinical systems.
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Healthcare CIOs Need To Understand Physicians' Pain

3/14/2012
Clinicians are frustrated by immature clinical information systems and questionable pay-for-performance rules. Understanding their angst can bring about cost-effective patient care.
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When EHR Critics Jump To Bad Conclusions

3/12/2012
If you think the recent Health Affairs report proves e-access to patient records increases healthcare costs, you need to take a closer look at the data.
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IT-Enhanced Medical Homes Aren't A Quick Fix

3/7/2012
Patient-centric medical homes are touted to fix the healthcare cost crisis, but the deep pockets and extensive IT resources they require aren't available to every healthcare provider.
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Healthcare IT Goes Star Trek

2/24/2012
Captain Kirk could talk to his computer and get the information needed to make executive level decisions. The latest clinical analytics tools featured at HIMSS are just about there.
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Interoperability: One Key To Saving U.S. Healthcare

2/23/2012
It's not the entire solution, but without well-designed, interoperable systems, our healthcare industry can't climb out of its current hole.
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Personalized Medicine Reaches Endocrinologists

2/21/2012
Medical app gets patients fully involved in their own care and lets diabetes specialists monitor them 24/7.
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Do Health IT Hires Need A Clinical Background?

2/16/2012
The debate on which qualifications an IT job candidate needs to work in a hospital or medical practice rages.
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Medical Search Engine Shootout: ClinicalKey Vs. UpToDate

2/14/2012
We've done a side-by-side comparison of these medical search engine and database tools to help you decide which better meets the needs of your clinicians.
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Don't Squander Your EHR Investment

2/10/2012
Why spend all that money on an office-based electronic health record system and not take full advantage of its features?
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Healthcare IT Needs More Crazy CIOs

1/31/2012
The IT leaders who make a difference sometimes break the rules, but their vision and courage drive results for the customers who matter: patients.
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The Brave New World Of Enterprise Data Warehouses

1/30/2012
Mid-size hospitals know how to analyze their financial, operational, and clinical data. But to survive in the coming pay-for-performance world, they must take it to the next level.
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Pay For Performance: Make Healthcare Metrics Count

1/26/2012
Healthcare providers must collect all sorts of quality and other performance data to meet emerging standards. We delve into the huge task ahead.
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Is Personalized Medicine In Your Future?

1/19/2012
Proponents say the marriage of health IT and individualized therapy will revolutionize health care. The jury is still out.
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Why Personal Health Records Have Flopped

1/12/2012
It's not a security, privacy, or data-sharing problem. It's a patient problem.
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Turbocharge Your EHR With Additional Data Sources

1/10/2012
Chances are your clinical information systems are starved for data. Consider adding EMBASE, Micromedix, and other sources.
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Is Your Clinical Database Up to Speed?

1/5/2012
If the scientific data going into these repositories is flawed, so are your clinicians' decisions.
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Do Clinicians Need Their Own DWI Rule?

12/22/2011
Doctoring While iPhoning isn't the same as Driving While Intoxicated. But doctors should know better than to engage in such behavior.
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Does Your Health IT Career Require Another Diploma?

12/20/2011
Breaking into health IT isn't easy. Going back to school for more training is a good place to start.
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Docs Have iPad Fever: Is There A Cure?

12/12/2011
Clinicians are excited about what iPads can do for practices. But if you're shopping for a medical tablet, dispassionate analysis is in order.
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Health Information Exchanges: Patients Must Be Convinced

12/2/2011
HIEs need more than consistent standards and cooperative healthcare providers. Patients must get on board--and the right kind of PR can win them over.
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Health Information Exchanges: Get Everyone Onboard

11/29/2011
The ultimate goal is a universally accepted national health information exchange. What's the holdup?
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Why Doctors Won't Like ACOs

11/21/2011
Accountable Care Organizations require hard data to support treatment decisions. IT's job is to build that evidence into your organization's systems.
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Don't Regulate EHRs Like Cars

11/16/2011
In the interest of patient safety, the Institute of Medicine recommends that health IT be more tightly regulated, much like the auto industry. But are the two industries comparable?
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