IBM continues to forge ahead with its personal health records program for its employees. Today, it announced that it will give all of its 133,000 U.S. workers online access to their health records. IBM assured that it [its system?] would keep health records strictly confidential and that only employees would have access to their own [...]

According to a study by Harvard Pilgrim HealthCare, the not-for-profit health insurer in Wellesley, consumers and doctors want information to compare the cost and quality of different healthcare providers. The survey published in The Boston Globe found that both patients and doctors would use information on cost and quality to make better healthcare decisions. Hospitals [...]

Interesting criticism of last week’s two PHR releases at Matthew Holt’s “The Health Care Blog.” In hisTECH: PHRs, EMRs and pretty much useless surveys, Holt criticizes both Markle and Manhattan research for surveys that suggest Americans are in favor of PHRs and EMRs. According to Markle, you may remember, 71 percent of Americans favor EMRs. [...]

According to a survey by the Markle Foundation, 72 percent of Americans say they favor a nationwide electronic info exchange to share their personal health information with authorized individuals quickly, privately, and securely via the Internet. Interestingly, more than three out of four Americans (79%) said making sure their records could be shared only after [...]

According to Modern Healthcare, Cerner CEO, Neal Patterson, criticized HHS’ David Brailers national health IT plans. He also ripped on Brailers models for Regional Health Information Organizations – the proposed foundation for a national Healthcare IT network. According to Patterson, “I think we need to debate (IT) architecture… You can’t have interoperability without a national [...]