While in the past their relationship bordered on resentful at times, healthcare clinicians and their IT staffs are more open to collaboration. This unison of different ideologies was spurred by the absolute need to improve patient care with healthcare IT and ensure that patients and their data remain safe. A few panelists at the Institute for Health Technology Transformation (iHT2) Health IT Summit last week discussed this rise in importance.

In an effort to fight the prescription drug-abuse epidemic, lawmakers in New York State recently passed legislation, known as I-STOP (Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing), designed to more effectively track patterns of potential prescription misuse. Among its mandates, the law requires that by March 2015, all prescriptions issued in the state of New York must be done so electronically (with limited exceptions), including prescriptions for controlled substances.

Next-gen Communications

A case for smartphones in the hands of nurses

While many customer-centric businesses today use text messaging extensively and to great effect, chances are, they don’t have to think all that much about security. For healthcare organizations, however, security isn’t only critical; it’s mandated by federal law in such provisions as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

A conversation with Sean Kelly, CMO of Imprivata, a health IT company with single sign-on and secure SMS solutions that commissioned the study, entitled The Economic & Productivity Impact of IT Security on Healthcare.