Lessons Learned from Early Adopters of Remote Patient Monitoring Technologies

Remote patient monitoring such as home teleheath and telemonitoring can help improve coordination, improve patients’ experience of care, and reduce hospital admissions and costs. These technologies remotely collect, track, and transmit health data from a patient’s home to a healthcare provider and can facilitate communication and help engage patients in the management of their own care. A new brief from The Commonwealth Fund offers findings from case studies of three early remote patient monitoring adopters: the Veterans Health Administration, Partners HealthCare, and Centura Health at Home. Read the case studies and lessons from early adopters here.

ONC Goal: 1,000 Rural Hospital Meaningful Users by End of 2014

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT has set an ambitious goal of 1,000 rural hospitals becoming meaningful users of health IT by the end of 2014.  Despite the budgetary and work force challenges rural hospitals face, they are making steady progress on health information technology adoption. Between 2009 and 2011 the rural provider EHR adoption rate more than doubled. To speed adoption and share best practices, ONC created the Rural Community of Practice (CoP) and has recruited and convened leaders with expertise to roll out pilot projects. Its 10 subcommittees track the key challenges rural hospitals face.  Read the full article by David Raths, Healthcare Informatics.