Having a strong first line of defense is key in any battle—and the same goes for the fight for cybersecurity. A recent newsletter released by HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) urges healthcare organizations to arm their employees with knowledge in order to prevent cyberattacks.

In response to the opioid epidemic, U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, MA, PhD, R-Pennsylvania, has introduced the Overdose Prevention and Patient Safety (OPPS) Act, which allows physicians to review patient information regarding previous addiction treatment through electronic health records (EHRs).

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released its “Digital Health Innovation Action Plan” to provide guidance on medical devices and software in the 21st Century Cures Act. The Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) was launched as a pilot precertification program for the development of digital health technology.

In his first blog post since being named to lead the Office of National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), Donald Rucker, MD, focused mostly on his own “journey” through medical school, the early days of electronic health records and working as chief medical officer at Siemens.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released a list of reusable medical devices that will require validated use instructions and data regarding cleaning, disinfection and sterilization.

In the ICD-9 era, there were universally accepted benchmarks to measure coding professionals’ productivity. Now, more than 18 months after the ICD-10 implementation date, the challenge is to do the same for the new coding system.

Under President Donald Trump's proposed budget, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) will lose $22 million in funding. The 36 percent reduction cuts the $60 million for ONC to $38 million in 2018.

Having a checklist for chores or exercise goals help in lining up what needs to be completed and the same should go for safety in hospitals. A recent study, set to be published in August in the Annals of Surgery, found that having a safety checklist program implemented in hospitals in South Carolina reduced post-surgical deaths by 22 percent.