Six commercial and nonprofit organizations have won awards in the second round of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Industry Innovation Competition. Three of the five winning projects, funded by the VA Innovation Initiative, are designed to improve access, quality of care and veteran satisfaction while reducing costs, the agency stated.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has taken a giant step toward removing unnecessary barriers to the use of telemedicine for medically necessary interventions, according to a statement by the Joint Commission.

Integrated Document Solutions (IDS) has made Mobile Voice2Dox, its integrated mobile dictation application, available for use with the iPhone.

Lakeway Regional Medical Center (LRMC), a new acute care hospital in Lakeway, Texas, has selected Allscripts to provide its health IT infrastructure.

DiagnosisOne has unveiled smartPath, a healthcare informatics platform that provides modules for clinical decision support, analytics and evidence-based order sets.

drawMD has released an iPad Application developed by urologic surgeons, which allows physicians to use interactive imagery to illustrate and describe treatment options for medical conditions.

The CMIO Health IT Top Trends Survey has been extended one more week. All clinical informatics leaders are invited to participate in this short online survey, designed to gauge the business and IT trends most effecting healthcare organizations. Survey respondents can enter a drawing to win an Apple iPad 2 for participating. The survey closes May 13, so click here to get started.

Earlier this week, CMS announced a final rule for Conditions of Participation that alleviates some of the burden of credentialing and privileging for telemedicine providers. The rule has been changed in response to a range of suggestions from organizations of all stripes, CMS said.