One of healthcare's worst security nightmares was played out in a mock trial at the HIMSS meeting this week. In the dock before an actual jurist in the lighthearted, though sobering, session was the fictitious Grits Healthcare System and its equally

Wireless communication technology already meets some needs in today's healthcare world in spite of limitations in its applicability, a HIMSS audience learned Tuesday afternoon. "Healthcare providers need time-sensitive data immediately," said Michael

Imaging must be integrated into the enterprise information infrastructure if the process improvements possible with PACS are to be realized, according to a speaker at HIMSS Wednesday. Many of the benefits of PACS extend well beyond the radiology

"Wireless integration," sometimes promoted as the most promising new development in healthcare since penicillin, may have trouble living up to the hype, according to speakers at a HIMSS education session Tuesday afternoon. "Cellular systems have a long

Moving to a paperless system can be expensive for hospitals at the start, but huge benefits in cost savings and added productivity eventually result, a HIMSS education session was told Tuesday. You may have to spend $34 million to go paperless, which

The U.S. Department of Defense is planning a comprehensive electronic medical record that eventually will be available anywhere in the world where a military patient is seen by military providers, according to a presentation Tuesday at the HIMSS meeting.

The looming federal patient privacy regulations and approaching compliance deadlines have become the number one IT priority among healthcare providers, according to preliminary results of a survey released Monday at the HIMSS conference. Analysis of

As the Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) initiative moves into its third year, several technical and implementation challenges must still be overcome before the undertaking can be called a success. Even so, the first two years have yielded

Web-enabled clinical support software developed for oncologists provides sophisticated rules-based treatment recommendations based on established oncology clinical guidelines, according to a speaker at the HIMSS conference this morning. "Rising costs

Electronic medical records are based on input-oriented architectures separated into laboratory, pharmacy, radiology, and other hospital divisions, but if given a choice, clinicians would reorganize the records around physiological systems. Analysis

Five years from now, will Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise-like initiatives function across all medical disciplines, paving the way for the first truly enterprise-wide electronic patient record? That is the vision of several participants in the IHE

Voice recognition has found an unlikely ally: PACS. Every major imaging and PACS vendor now offers, or is on the verge of launching, digital dictation capabilities integrated with their radiology workstations. Some even go a step further and voice-enable

As the annual RSNA meeting draws near, vendors are gearing up for Year 2 of the IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise) demonstration. As part of this process, some 150 software engineers and marketing/product managers from more than 30 imaging,

Using the polyglot of digital medical data to maximum patient advantage requires a Rosetta stone to integrate various enterprise-wide information systems -- a monumental task that is being addressed by an industry initiative called Integrating the