Connecting monitors to EHRS

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Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) comprises seven hospitals in Ontario, recently introduced a system that integrated vital sign monitors with the electronic health records (EHR). HHS has used an integration platform that could tie any device with the EHR called Iatric Systems. Mark Farrow, vice president and CIO at HHS, expects the use of an integration platform such as Iatric Systems will help HHS hospitals to work smarter.

Communication is vital in care coordination between physicians and other healthcare professionals. Effective information exchange is an important part of clinical workflow. However, very few HIS currently support HIPAA compliant support for provider communication. Hence providers still resort to age-old modes of communication such as phone call and email. Athenahealth recently introduced AthenaText an HIPAA compliant mobile text messaging system for healthcare professionals. This app hopes to keep ubiquitously connected during moments of care. Providers can access athenaText within the Epocrates mobile app or download it for free from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

Recently a firmware vulnerability was detected in Mac, generally considered impenetrable as opposed to windows. The so-called Thunderstrike vulnerability exploits target the boot ROM and are difficult to detect and remove. A vast majority of physicians rely on Mac, and this vulnerability could have an impact on patient data privacy and security.

Bell Eapen
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