How to Choose an EMR…and other pressing questions

For those of you who attend to news about Health Information Technology (HIT) last week was a busy one.

The 10th annual meeting of the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) in Atlanta took top billing. One of my favorite bloggers [EMR (EHR) and HIPAA] attended and posted frequently during the conference. John has been writing about [...]

EMR Certification Picture Gets Enlarged

On March 2, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) announced a plan to approve organizations to certify electronic health record software programs. ModernHealthcare.com reported the announcement of this new plan by ONC head, Dr. David Blumenthal, at the big meeting of the Health Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) occurring in Atlanta [...]

Parity Interim Final Rule Guidance Released

On January 29, 2010, the federal departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury released their ”guidance” on the Wellstone-Dominici Mental Health Parity Act. The National Council discussed some of the contents of the Interim Final Rule (IFR) in their February 4 Public Policy Update. The IFR goes into effect April 5, 2010 and applies to policies [...]

Has the U.S. Become an Anti-Scientific Nation?

On Sunday night our book club met to discuss Richard Dawkins’ Greatest Show on Earth. While I had a bit of difficulty with his style of writing, the data Dawkins presents in explication and support of evolution is exhaustive. Even with such overwhelming evidence, he reports that a full 44% of Americans surveyed in 2008 do not believe that [...]

Behavioral Health EMR Systems Learn to Cooperate: A sneak peek at interoperability

I am on my way back from two and a half days in Phoenix where approximately 40 SATVA (Software and Technology Vendor Association) member representatives, EMR users, and industry IT experts met to find a way for behavioral healthcare providers to exchange patient information using the electronic Continuity of Care Document (CCD). The CCD is [...]

SATVA to hold Interoperability Conference

The Software and Technology Vendor Association (SATVA) is hosting the first Behavioral Health Interoperability Conference for behavioral health electronic medical records software next week. SOS is among the member organizations who will be attending the conference along with other behavioral health software vendors, some vendor clients, representatives of The National Council (NCCBH), MHCA, and others.
SATVA has been [...]

Psychology & Climate change: Risk perception

Note: This article is my once-in-a-while exploration of human behavior and climate change. While it is in no way related to health care, it may be directly related to health.
The cold temperatures across the nation this week have had some individuals scoffing at the notion of global warming. On the other hand, most scientists explain [...]

Evidence Based Treatment and Psychology

As a psychologist trained 30 years ago in a Boulder-model scientist practitioner training program in clinical psychology, the ability to critically evaluate research and to determine its application to the treatment of my patients was an essential part of my practice and of my outlook on clinical psychology. That initial training fed my early interest in [...]

Remote Conversations: How do you do it?

I’ve mentioned here pretty often than I am not a technology sophisticate. I use technology every day in my work life, but I am a slow-adopter. For some of you, this article may be so old-hat that you will ask “Kathy, where have you been?” But I know there are others out there like me, so [...]

APA & Climate Change: What psychology can do

I sat down Monday morning to write this week’s blog post. I was intent upon writing about American Psychological Association’s (APA) recent report on climate change and what the psychology community can do about it. I had previously glanced at the executive summary of the report and was excited to learn what the entire report recommended. Unfortunately, [...]