From standards to customer demands of their vendors, interoperability advances are visible on numerous fronts.

Walgreens is unrolling its WellTransitions program at more than 150 health systems and hospitals across the U.S. to assist with coordinated care efforts.

National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) President Diane C. Pinakiewicz, MBA, will leave her position on Nov. 12. As part of the planned transition, Patricia McGaffigan, RN, MS, VP of program strategy and management at NPSF, will assume interim duties while the search for a permanent successor occurs.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has awarded Oregon Health & Science University in Portland a $1 million grant to fund research aimed at reducing medical errors associated with EHRs.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is funneling an estimated $3.5 billion into comparative effectiveness research, but little of this research translates into clinical practice. Five factors holding it back need to be addressed, according to an article published in the October issue of Health Affairs.

Under a new health information exchange (HIE) partnership, half of U.S. patients will now have their health information accessible to medical professionals regardless of location. The Certification Commission for Health IT (CCHIT) has entered into a public-private partnership of states, public agencies, federally funded HIEs and health IT companies and been named the compliance testing body to help enhance the exchange and patient care.

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) has issued a report listing several actionable steps healthcare stakeholders can follow to help them meet the Oct. 1, 2014, deadline to implement ICD-10.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute has got the wrong idea. With its funding scheduled to expire in 2019, the organization should be focused on specific clinical questions that comparative effectiveness research can answer quickly and decisively rather than the broad research priorities outlined in its agenda, according to an article by Harold C. Sox, MD, published in the October issue of Health Affairs.