EHRs Lack Standards, Best Practices

Vendors support an independent body to develop best practices and usability standards for electronic health record products.

A report raises growing concerns that electronic health record products are being developed without specific best practices and design standards related to EHR product use in a healthcare setting. To overcome this difficulty, many vendors support an independent body guiding development of voluntary usability standards for EHRs, the study found.

Are We Ready for a True Data Disaster?

Imagine you’re head of a company whose stock in trade is mining one of the world’s most valuable resources. You’ve just struck a rich new cache. The potential for profit is huge. Then, all of a sudden, disaster strikes. Maybe your equipment failed. Maybe your technology had some unforeseen flaw. Maybe it was human error. Whatever the cause, in an instant that promising new profit center has become a liability, and what was once a valuable commodity has become a dangerous contaminant, gushing out of your control at an alarming rate.

Driving E-Mail to the Cloud

With the right applications, e-mail in the cloud could be a productivity boon.

There has been a lot of discussion about companies moving their e-mail systems from in-house operations to a cloud application–in other words, to a hosted platform on a remote server or data center. Much of the talk centers on two topics: Cost and Functionality.

IT ROI: More Than Meets The Eye

Return on investment is one of the more difficult IT factors to accurately calculate. What is initially a good investment may, as time progresses, dig deeper into the budget or result in unplanned indirect expenses.

The first step to combating this is to begin every major technology initiative with a build vs. buy ROI analysis. The “buy” option should encompass consideration of both acquiring an existing solution and outsourcing the build process. There are less-than-obvious ROI implications that need to be addressed with each of these routes.

Privacy: The Cloud’s Achilles’ Heel?

Security in a cloud computing engagement is emerging as an essential factor, one that should be addressed by both parties. IT organizations are beginning to realize they can’t opt out of their security responsibilities because a third party has taken over processing chores. And service providers are getting the message that security is a top priority for most enterprise customers.

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