Digital Government
Heads Up on Upcoming EHR Study
The California HealthCare Foundation plans to release on Monday findings from a study that documents for the first time specific health benefits patients have reported from using personal health records. (Another term for electronic health records.) The study's authors also will release findings also on who are using e-records and the latest on the public's privacy concerns.
Digital Government
Doctors Want EHR 2.0
An long-running complaint about software development is it is rarely done for consumers -- the users of a program. Software is typically written for some other agenda or use. That's when you hear the complaint that a program isn't intuitive and is hard to navigate. (Although an exception is Apple's iPad, which has routinely received <a href=http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20100331/apple-ipad-review/>positive reviews</a> about its ease of use.)
Cybersecurity
Another View on the Cybersecurity Act
The 2009 Cybersecurity Act has been pretty much <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090401_6424.php?oref=search">hailed</a> as a big step in correcting much of what has hobbled the effort to secure networks key to operating the day-to-day functions of the United States and government.
Cybersecurity
Privacy Gets a Boost
Privacy groups have been pushing for years to revise a federal privacy law that pertains to digital media. They got a start yesterday. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said they intend to hold hearings this spring on amending the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.
Digital Government
HHS' PR Contract Draws Criticism
It didn't take long for controversy to swirl around a $26 million contract the Health and Human Services Department recently <a href=http://healthitupdate.nextgov.com/2010/03/madison_ave_to_gild_health_it.php>awarded</a> to a major public relations firm to sooth the public's fear that their privacy may be compromised as the medical industry moves to electronic health records. (Nearly 60 percent of Americans surveyed last year said they were not confident that their medical information would be properly protected in an EHR, according to <a href=http://www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/upload/7887.pdf>a poll</a> conducted by NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University's School of Public Health.)
Digital Government
Can Docs be Paid to Adopt EHRs?
Just how effective are government incentive payments to physicians to encourage them to adopt electronic health records? So, so, according to a survey conducted by a data interchange company in Massachusetts.
Cybersecurity
GPS Tracking Equals Another Privacy Battle
The federal government is considering ways to bolster falling revenue from gas taxes, as more motorists drive hybrid and more fuel-efficient cars. The nation has a $140 billion shortfall in highway funding, which will get worse as cars burn less gas causing revenue from fuel taxes drop, <a href=http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/mar/29/nevada-studies-fuel-tax-alternatives/>according to the Las Vegas Sun</a>.
Ideas
GOP Finds its Tweet Voice
The Republican Party was criticized after the 2008 elections for being outdone by Democrats in using social networking to raise money. The party is a quick learner, it seems.
Cybersecurity
Whole Lotta Cybersecurity Goin' On
There's been a lot of cybersecurity talk on the Hill this week. The passage out of committee of the <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20100324_7395.php?oref=topnews">2009 Cybersecurity Act</a> and <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20100325_7218.php?oref=topnews">amendments to the 2002 Federal Information Security Management Act</a> all got ink. One bill that hasn't received as much attention is the International Cybercrime Reporting and Cooperation Act, introduced on Tuesday by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. This bill looks overseas at trying to squash the rising threats of hackers and criminals, and realizes the borderless nature of the Internet.
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is Hard
It's not going to be easy creating an overall strategy for protecting federal networks from hackers and insider threats. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, prepared the government for just that when talking about the 2009 Cybersecurity Act, which she co-sponsored with Sen. John (Jay) Rockefeller, D-W.Va.:
Digital Government
Health Reform's Tech Angle
One of the least covered areas in the health care debate was the amount of technology that underlies the reforms, at least not in the mainstream media. But for the reforms to bring down costs as the Obama administration envisions, it's going to take a lot of applied technology.
Cybersecurity
This Week: The 'Game Changer'
The cybersecurity community will hit a major milestone this week when the Senate Commerce Committee begins marking up the 2010 Cybersecurity Act. Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, wrote the bill and first introduced it in early 2009.
Digital Government
New Deputy Director at HHS
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is getting a new deputy director. His name is Craig Brammer and he's (now) the former project director of <a href=http://www.forces4quality.org/welcome>Aligning Forces for Quality</a> in Cincinnati.
Digital Government
Health Care Reform in Your Inbox?
Over the weekend, a political blogger and the White House took aim at each other over charges that the Obama administration had sent some federal employees e-mails asking them to support health care reform.
Digital Government
Why Health Care Costs so Much
Wired Executive Editor Thomas Goetz, writing for The Huffington Post on Tuesday, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-goetz/the-dark-side-of-healthca_b_496943.html">explained</a> why health technology, unlike, say, advancing computer technology, doesn't bring health costs down, but actually causes them to increase - a lot. Here's his reasoning:
Cybersecurity
Long Odds for Cybersecurity Law
Eric Chabrow, who writes the blog The Public Eye for Gov Info Security, <a href=http://blogs.govinfosecurity.com/posts.php?postID=480>predicts</a> the likelihood of President Obama signing a cybersecurity bill this year is quickly diminishing:
Digital Government
A Good Idea
In light of a system at the Veterans Affairs Department mixing up patient data, it may be a good idea that a panel advising the Health and Human Services Department on electronic health records <a href=http://govhealthit.com/newsitem.aspx?nid=73304>proposed</a> on Friday a system into which clinicians could "report instances - noticeably inaccurate patient data or an EHR technical glitch, for instance - that they believed might compromise patient safety," Government Health IT reported on Friday.
Ideas
Friday is Deadline for Nextgov Awards
Friday is the last day to <a href="http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov_awards/">submit a nomination</a> for the Nextgov Awards. Do you know a colleague who took on personal risks to push through an idea, policy or management change that used technology? If so, please tell us their story.
Ideas
Want Workers? Get Tech
Wired Workplace blogger Brittany Ballenstedt posted on Wednesday findings from a study conducted by Accenture on Millennials' use of social networking tools at work. (Millennials are the youngest workers among us, those younger than 28.)
Ideas
Orszag Hints at Flat Budgets
Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag spoke at a Government Executive leadership breakfast on Tuesday and talked about the Obama administration's effort to close the federal government's "IT gap," a situation in which many agencies work on computer systems -- or on no systems at all -- that are woefully behind what the private sector has.
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