Latest California Healthline Stories
Health 2.0: The Customer Is King
Speakers and attendees at last week’s Health 2.0 conference said that giving patients a voice in health care decisions is a priority. The Health 2.0 space has changed from its beginnings as virtual libraries or data storage software to a focus on dynamic personalization and interconnectivity.
Confidentiality of Health Information in PHRs and Mobile Health Apps in California
A California law that went into effect this year goes further than HIPAA by holding many different types of organizations — including some developers of personal health records and mobile applications — to confidentiality standards and medical data disclosure rules that traditionally have been reserved for health care entities.
L.A. County Aims To Transform Health Care With New EHR System
In an ideal world, patients’ health data would follow them when they move from one health facility to another. In Los Angeles County, that’s not possible … yet. But a grand jury report suggests the county’s new electronic health record system could become a model for other cities and counties.
Health Data Sharing Becoming More Attainable but Also More Complex
Is the health care industry ready for a data-sharing revolution? Information technology experts say that while there’s been a paradigm shift in how health data are stored, used and shared, there are still many challenges ahead.
Public Health Information Portal Opens
The state Department of Public Health launched a new online data portal last week so that other public agencies and private innovators can create and design new applications for public use.
Progress on the Road to Data Sharing
Leaders in health information technology at an annual meeting in Santa Rosa last week reported significant progress in policy-making and technological advancements in California’s efforts to create a sophisticated data-sharing ecosystem.
Electronic Backpack for Foster Kids Launched in Ventura County
A pilot project using information technology and the Internet to coordinate social workers and health care providers working with foster children launched last week in Ventura County. The private-public partnership aims to be a model for other parts of California and the nation.
Committee Approves More Funding for IT System, Hopes To Ease Backlog Issue
State officials — who say an inadequate computer system is partly to blame for a backlog of 900,000 Medi-Cal applications — won approval yesterday from a budget subcommittee to increase funding for the state’s IT enrollment system.
Plan To Switch Eligibility IT Systems OK’d
The Senate health committee approved a proposal to change the information technology system the state uses to enroll Medi-Cal beneficiaries, a change that could have far-reaching impacts.
Changes Coming in California Medical Labs
California’s new partnership with a private accreditation organization — believed to be the first of its kind in the country — is one of several changes in store for clinical laboratories.