e-Health in the News
Digitize medical records; waiting puts lives at risk
Boston Globe
Editorial | May 7, 2010
WHEN IT COMES to switching from paper to electronic records, medicine trails many other professions — even though study after study has shown that computerization will save not just money but lives. Even with the incentive of billions of federal dollars to cover much of the cost of the transition, doctors and hospitals have been slow to take even the first steps toward conversion. Apparently, they feel little or no responsibility for symptoms that get misdiagnosed because of inadequate information about a patient’s past medical care, let alone the tests that get repeated because no one has a record of the previous results. Read more >>
Computerize the errors away
Boston Globe
Editorial | February 21, 2008
PREVENTING MEDICATION errors in Massachusetts hospitals could save $170 million while sparing patients the ill effects of these mistakes. The best protection against errors is to computerize doctors' orders for drugs and tests. The 63 hospitals in the state that have not taken this step - only 10 have - should do so as quickly as possible. More>>
Report: Patients not always given correct medications at hospitals
New England Cable News
February 15, 2008
(NECN: Boston, Mass.) - When you go to the hospital you expect to be given the correct medicine, but that doesn't always happen. A new study finds an alarmingly high rate of prescription errors at six Massachusetts community hospitals.
Read more and view video on NECN website>>
1 and 10 Patients Gets Drug Error
Boston Globe
By Patricia Wen | February 14, 2008
One in every 10 patients admitted to six Massachusetts community hospitals suffered serious and avoidable medication mistakes, according to a report being released today by two nonprofit groups that are urging all hospitals in the state to install a computerized prescription ordering system. More>>
Digital doctoring
Op-Ed from the Boston Globe
By Joseph B. Martin | March 29, 2007
BY NOW, the stories are legion. Physicians at a California hospital rebel against a new computer system for ordering prescriptions and laboratory tests, forcing it to be shut down. In the Southeast, doctors at an acute care facility bypass the new computer system by seeking assignments on wards that have not been computerized. And in a suburban Boston hospital, the chief of surgery stalks into the CEO's office and, referring to a brand new medical computer system, demands, "Rip it out!" More>>
Records-sharing program among the first in the state
Patients come first in data trial
Berkshire Eagle | August 31, 2006
Christopher Marcisz, Berkshire Eagle Staff
Northern Berkshire Healthcare has begun participating in a records-sharing program designed to increase the quality of care while keeping costs in check.
And while the initiative may revolve around the collection and sharing of electronic data, officials emphasize that their primary focus remains on treatment. More>>
Building better drugs
Boston Globe | April 11, 2005
Robert Gavin, Globe Staff
New tools are often the driving force behind advances in life sciences, and Massachusetts has the tool-making legacy to turn that into a competitive advantage for local companies.
A high-tech transfusion for Mass. hospitals
Boston Globe Op-Ed | March 23, 2005
Mitchell Adams and Wendy Everett
Massachusetts Advances Health Care IT Goals
iHealthBeat | January 20, 2005