The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) has released its six initial Health Information Technology Professionals Examinations, intended to identify highly skilled health IT experts.

Healthcare costs are expected to rise by 8.5 percent in 2012, compared with an increase of 8 percent in 2011, according to a report on medical cost trends published by PricewaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute.

When you think of EMRs, you dont normally think of font size. However, a report from Kalorama Information showed that font size, frame size and the number of keystrokes needed for data entry can mean the difference in whether hospitals and physicians readily adopt an EMR.

National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari, speaking at the Beacon Community programs first-year anniversary, said he was not just speaking to the Beacon Communities in the room, "but also to all the folks out there who might say Im doing that too. I should be talking about what Im doing. Its not just our 17 Beacon Communities. Theres a whole nation of Beacons out there doing this work.

A lot can happen in a year, according to Beacon Community panelists at a May 17 event IT in an Era of Accountable Care Organizations: Update from the Beacon Communities, presented by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) and the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will begin accepting applications for its accountable care organization (ACO) test model. According to a notice filed May 17, which will be published in the Federal Register on May 20, the CMS will request applications for organizations to participate in the Pioneer Accountable Care Organization Model for a five- to six-year period, starting in the third or fourth quarter of 2011. 

Kickstarting an accountable care organization could cost more higher than the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services anticipates, according to a study prepared for the American Hospital Association. 

Intensive care units (ICUs) that implemented telemedicine intervention including offsite electronic monitoring of processes and detection of nonadherence to best practices had lower hospital and ICU mortality, lower rates of preventable complications and shorter hospital and ICU length of stay, according to a study published May 16 online in the Journal of the American Medical Association.