Health News

As telehealth becomes the new normal, NCQA updates quality measures

The National Committee for Quality Assurance has given the OK for what it’s calling a “sweeping set of adjustments” to 40 of the measures used for HEDIS scores, given the new realities of widespread and scaled-up telehealth use. WHY IT MATTERS The Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set measures, widely used in quality-improvement efforts, have […]

Health News

Mount Sinai launches COVID-19 recovery center, new institute for health equities research

The New York-based Mount Sinai Health System has launched the Institute for Health Equity Research, which will be dedicated to studying healthcare disparities and testing solutions for improvement initiatives. In a separate statement, Mount Sinai also announced the opening of its new Center for Post-COVID Care to provide post-multidisciplinary care and psychosocial resources for patients […]

Health News

DoD, VA establish office to improve EHR coordination

The Department of Defense and the Veterans Affairs department announced the creation of a special office to help centralize decision-making as the VA makes a multi-billion dollar electronic health records upgrade. WHAT HAPPENED The Federal Electronic Health Record Modernization (FEHRM) office will replace the current Interagency Program Office, headed by Lauren Thompson. WHY IT MATTERS […]

Health News

Walmart joins MediLedger, blockchain-based pharma tracking group

Walmart is the latest major company to sign on with the blockchain initiative Mediledger, which is exploring ways to harness distributed ledger technology to ensure the security and safety of pharmaceuticals. WHY IT MATTERS The news, first reported by bitcoin and blockchain website Coindesk, signifies that health and life sciences use cases for blockchain are […]

Health News

HHS to deep-six twenty years of evidence-based medical guidelines

The federal government is just days away from eliminating nearly 20 years of medical guidelines accumulated and curated by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. AHRQ web pages for the National Guideline Clearinghouse and the National Quality Measures Clearinghouse currently feature announcements stating they will go dark on July 16, 2018. “It is not […]