Patients with online access to their medical records and secure email communication with clinicians had increased use of clinical services, including office visits and telephone encounters, compared to patients who did not have online access, according to a study appearing in the Nov. 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

A comparison of care provided during virtual and physical interactions with providers revealed that e-visits could reduce healthcare costs despite their correlation with higher prescribing rates, according to a research letter published online Nov. 19 by the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The National eHealth Collaborative (NeHC) has unveiled its patient engagement framework, a model to help guide health organizations through the process of developing and refining health IT-enabled patient engagement strategies.

North Mississippi Health Services is a recipient of the 2012 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, a presidential honor annually bestowed upon organizations in four different sectors for outperforming their industry’s status quo.

A survey of international primary care providers (PCPs) revealed wide variations from country to country in patient access, health IT utilization, care coordination, performance feedback and providers’ perception of healthcare delivery. The results were published online Nov. 15 by Health Affairs.

The Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC) is partnering with DirectTrust.org to create a national accreditation program for health information service providers, certificate authorities and registration authorities.

NextGen Healthcare will connect to the Surescripts Network for Clinical Interoperability to enable NextGen's users to send and receive clinical information across physician practices, hospitals, health centers and other healthcare entities across the U.S.

Continuing their tradition of releasing requests for public comment related to various elements of the Meaningful Use program right around the end-of-year holiday season, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT's (ONC) HIT Policy Committee is set to publish its proposed recommendations for Stage 3. The 45-day comment period should end right around the time we’re ringing in the new year.