Meaningful Use and ICD-10 aren’t negotiable when it comes to priorities for health IT leaders but other developments, such as analytics, patient engagement and changing payment models, offer opportunities for innovation in patient care. 

Everyone has predictions for the future. With so much going on in the health IT arena, there are some certainties: more change, more innovation.

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation awarded Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center a $5.3 million grant to pursue a project that marries health IT, system science and patient engagement in an effort to eliminate preventable harm in the intensive care unit.

The first two wearable devices by Sensogram Technologies AG will be introduced to the market this year as unique products in the growing field of mHealth and eHealth.

An analysis at Boston Medical Center found that its cardiac care unit experienced 12,000 alarms a day, on average. But, according to a story on National Public Radio, the center was able to successfully combat alarm fatique by switching off lower-risk alarms and upgrading some warnings, for instance a pause in heart rhythm, to a higher level that signifies a crisis.

Interoperability differs from exchange, even though the terms often are used interchangedly, said Doug Fridsma, MD, PhD, chief science officer and director of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s Office of Science & Technology, at the organization’s Jan. 23 annual meeting.

Payers are increasingly directing their efforts toward the digital consumer in different ways than ever before, according to a 33-page report published by Chilmark, a Mass.-based health IT analyst firm.

Nearly half of pharmaceutical manufacturers are actively using social media to engage with patients, according to a report from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics.