Electronic Health Records

An electronic health record (EHR) stores all of an individual patient's information in electronic format. The record is maintained by the provider over time and may include the patient's medical history, current medications, demographics, doctor's notes and other important administrative information. Issues concerning EHRs include data exchange, privacy and security, and patient consent. The final rule for Meaningful Use, released on July 13, 2010, allows hospitals to qualify for thousands of dollars in stimulus funding for the adoption of electronic health records.

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Top 10 'urban myths' of EHRs
EHR market projected to double by 2012
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MU audits: Off to a rocky start
When stakeholders, federal officials and proponents of electronic health records first tossed around the idea of providing incentives to help move the giant boulder of progress up the mountain, there were plenty of skeptics. How can you take physicians who are set in their ways – and patients who are used to those ways – and change all the rules? But, change they did, and in just two years since the EHR Incentive Program began, more hospitals and physicians than ever before have gone digital.
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May 20, 2013
Diana Manos
News
Change begins at home
At the 18th annual meeting and trade show of the American Telemedicine Association, three medical informatics experts put forth a convincing case that big data and virtual care technologies are poised to drastically alter how the medical home – a concept first devised in 1967 – will be approached in the future.
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May 20, 2013
Mike Miliard
News
Texas hospital realizes power of data
Mining the right data at the right time is improving care and making a difference in a measurable way at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
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May 20, 2013
Bernie Monegain
News
EHRs and ACOs
In January, I was asked to share my thoughts on Health Information Exchange at a joint hearing of the federal Health IT Policy Committee and HIT Standards Committee.
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May 20, 2013
News
Micky Tripathi on 10 years of HIT
It’s been nearly 10 years since Micky Tripathi took the reins as chief executive officer of the Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, a combination non-profit/for-profit collaborative of 34 nonprofit healthcare organizations in Massachusetts, founded by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, American College of Physicians and the Mass Medical Society.
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May 20, 2013
Bernie Monegain
News
ONC chief: Regulation fuels innovation
Can the current regulatory structure in place within the federal government keep pace with health IT without inhibiting innovation?
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May 20, 2013
Tom Sullivan
News
ACOs: ‘It’s all about the ‘C’’
When deliberating about how to organize an ACO, providers need to focus on the “C” first, accountable care organization specialists say. By prioritizing care, the rest will fall into place, says Katherine Schneider, MD, executive vice president and chief medical officer for Wayne, Pa.-based Medecision.
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May 20, 2013
John Andrews
News
Through the looking glass
It's probably the most anticipated and potentially transformative new gadget since the smartphone. But unlike the iPhone, Google Glass has also been heralded with a healthy dose of controversy.
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May 20, 2013
Mike Miliard
News
Providers look to revenue cycle management to weather sequester and ICD-10
Healthcare organizations will need to be more effective, cost efficient and productive in the future to not only survive, but also to maintain positive cash flows, according to Brian Fugere, COO of RemitDATA.
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May 17, 2013
Diana Manos
News
URAC standards put to the test
Several organized physician groups are beta testing URAC's new clinical integration accreditation program standards. The independent standards organization created the new program to serve as a road map for health providers to achieve clinical integration and accountable care. By earning URAC accreditation, providers will demonstrate they are delivering improved patient care and reducing costs.
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May 17, 2013
Bernie Monegain
News
Public PHR portal in works for New York
The New York eHealth Collaborative has announced the winners of its personal health record portal challenge, with the designs in turn expected to inform the PHR that NYeC will offer all New Yorkers in 2014. A Brooklyn-based health data and design startup called Mana Health won first prize and $15,000 for its PHR.
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May 17, 2013
Anthony Brino
News
VA, DoD on tighter leash with iEHR
Members of Congress are lauding a bipartisan bill that limits funding for an integrated electronic health record system between VA and DoD and requires aggressive progress updates from both agencies, which have, in recent months, come under fire for the dilatory pace at which they're moving forward with the iEHR.
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May 15, 2013
Erin McCann
News
Reinventing Healthcare for the 21st Century: Meeting Global Challenges with Innovations in Care Coordination
Both developed and emerging countries face three global megatrends that will have a crippling impact on their economies and societies if not address in the near future. The most significant trend is a rapidly aging world population. The proportion of the population over the age of 60 is projected to double between 2000 and 2050. At its 2012 Healthcare Innovation Summit, Intel convened several worldwide thought leaders to discuss opportunities to alleviate the impact of global aging, cost growth and workforce shortages.
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November 15, 2012
Resource Central
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Sizing Up Your Cloud Options - Is Now the Time?
A recent survey of IT executives found nearly 90% see business value in transitioning to Cloud computing, but only 20% have a plan to get there. Healthcare Cloud solutions require Compliance, Security, Privacy, Redundancy, and Scalability, so choosing the right path from on-premises servers to the Cloud can be daunting. Learn how to chart a quick and affordable course to healthcare <a href="/directory/cloud-computing" target="_blank" class="directory-item-link">Cloud Computing</a> and how to choose the right Cloud services partner.
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November 7, 2012
Resource Central
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sites/default/files/resource-media/pdf/qts_sizing_up_the_cloud_v2gen.pdf
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QualSight LASIK Achieves HIPAA Compliance After Attempted Hack
In January 2010, QualSight - the nation’s largest LASIK manager serving over 75 million health plan members - was informed that a hack attempt had been made against their infrastructure. They were concerned that a repeat occurrence could take place and wanted to take a pro-active role in eliminating any future occurrence. Download this case study to find out how QualSight finally found a solution that offered complete HIPAA compliancy.
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November 7, 2012
Resource Central
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Improve Patient Safety and Reduce Medical Errors during all Points of Care
Barcodes, in the healthcare environment, are a patient’s voice. They identify, communicate and connect the patient accurately with his or her records from the moment care begins. Whether it’s at check-in, at the bedside or in the lab, barcodes help protect patients’ safety and reduce medical errors – which can cost your organization millions of dollars. This white paper that discusses how barcodes can be the patient’s voice – and save your organization from costly errors – during patient identification procedures, medication administration at the bedside, as well as in the lab during specimen collection and tracking.
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November 1, 2012
Resource Central
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Meaningful Use Stage 2: A handbook for providers
Meaningful Use Stage 2: A handbook for providers discusses the changes in Stage 2 following the release of the final rules. This report focuses on what providers should expect, technology challenges and business opportunities in Stage 2 criteria, and key enterprise strategies for Stage 2 initiatives.
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October 29, 2012
Resource Central
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Top 12 Best Practices for Systems Management in Healthcare - And the Financial Benefits
In healthcare, IT systems management is not simply a matter of process efficiency and cost savings—it could be a matter of life or death for patients. Faced with regulatory requirements, widely dispersed facilities, demands for <a href="/directory/electronic-health-record-ehr" target="_blank" class="directory-item-link">electronic health records</a> (EHRs), and increasingly more and more mobile devices for providers, healthcare IT managers are forced to streamline systems management as budgets and headcount shrink.
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October 25, 2012
Resource Central
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Physical Security for Healthcare Devices and Equipment
Electronic locks and latches provide enhanced security where healthcare facilities need it the most – on the carts and cabinets that house valuable medical supplies and patient information. Electronic locks provide secure locking and audit trail capabilities that can help healthcare IT managers comply with industry regulations such as HIPAA and <a href="/directory/health-information-technology-economic-and-clinical-health-hitech-act" target="_blank" class="directory-item-link">HITECH</a>. This white paper explores opportunities for improved physical security in the healthcare environment and reviews electronic access solutions available to equipment manufacturers.
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October 16, 2012
Resource Central
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Don't Let Personal Mobile Devices Put the Corporate Network at Risk
Hospitals and medical offices are busy places. Ever wonder how easy it would be for someone to walk out with an office laptop or mobile device? Not only do patients expect confidentiality of their medical records but government regulations like HIPAA demand it. The theft of laptops, computers and mobile devices is a common cause of data breaches and physical security is a highly effective first line of defense.
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October 8, 2012
Resource Central
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Intelligently Leverage Patient Record for Optimal Quality Measurements
Successful ACOs must assemble a consistent and complete view of patient’s clinical history for efficient access by care providers/managers. In addition, data intelligence is needed to establish patient risk profiles, treatment adherence, and clinical and cost trajectories for care management. Apixio’s intelligent cloud-based platform can aggregate and index patient data (structured and unstructured), apply sophisticated analytics, and route key insights into clinical workflow/reporting applications designed to help ACOs achieve optimal quality and cost objectives.
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October 3, 2012
Resource Central
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http://www.apixio.com/access-performance-measures-webinar
Significantly Improve Your Medicare Advantage Reimbursement
In this webinar, Apixio describes innovative and intelligent analytics to automatically expose actionable opportunities to improve risk adjustment factor scoring by automatically extracting relevant diagnoses in clinical narrative using both text and scanned documents and comparing them against claims data to identify information gaps. The model leverages big data analytic techniques to determine where information gaps which can be addressed by coders to improve both chart audit productivity and also uncover additional opportunities for reimbursement.
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October 3, 2012
Resource Central
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http://www.apixio.com/access-hcc-webinar
Leading Security Solutions for the Healthcare Environment!
When a desktop, laptop or computer is stolen, a hospital loses far more than a piece of expensive equipment. Not only do patients expect confidentiality of their medical records but government regulations like HIPPA demand it. The theft of laptops, computers and mobile devices is a common cause of data breaches and physical security is a highly effective first line of defense. Watch this video to Learn how to stop theft and protect patient safety with industry leading security solutions.
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October 1, 2012
Resource Central
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http://youtu.be/dItbmn0hRaY
Realizing the Return: Comprehensive systems management maximizes the value of healthcare IT
By taking a comprehensive approach to systems management, healthcare providers’ IT departments can significantly reduce the amount of time required to perform routine maintenance tasks, therefore improving productivity. These time savings allow IT departments to shift staff to more value added activities that help support the business and reachstrategic goals.
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September 19, 2012
Resource Central
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Separating professional and hospital records
As patient-centered medical homes and Accountable Care Organizations form, the lines between professional and hospital practice become increasingly murky.
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July 25, 2012
John Halamka
Blog
Whose job is it to create the future?
Predicting where EHRs are going is, of course, more than just a hobby for many people in the healthcare sector.
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July 24, 2012
Jeff Rowe
Blog
74% of Physicians Report EHR Adoption Enhanced Patient Care
The CDC’s Center for National Health Statistics (NCHS) has issued a data brief announcing estimates from the 2011 Physician Workflow Survey regarding the physician adoption of EHRs, which is sponsored by the ONC.
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July 19, 2012
Fred Pennic
Blog
A Coordinated Approach to Care and Population Health Management Driven By IT
There is little question that healthcare is undergoing a significant transformation. Patient-centered, accountable care and pay-for-performance reimbursements are converging to create a unique environment for payers, providers and patients alike.
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July 18, 2012
Sam Rangaswamy
Blog
Yellow Jackets Take on Healthcare's Challenges
It pains me to write this, but Georgia Tech seems to be taking the lead when it comes to healthcare IT research and partnerships.
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June 29, 2012
Jennifer Dennard
Blog
How to design next-generation EHR data models
Today’s reality of patient management is “disjointed care” and most of the collaborators in a patient’s care team don’t know what each other is doing for the patient in real time. Knowing all the different participants in the patient’s care team and coordinating and integrating their electronic activities is what successful EHRs must handle with ease.
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June 7, 2012
Shahid Shah
Blog
EHR Implementation Doesn't Have to be a Doctor's Worse Nightmare
Now that more than $4.4 billion in electronic health record (EHR) incentive payments (as of March 2012) have been paid to 76,000 plus healthcare providers, it’s time to focus on the rest of the physicians in this country who need to implement an EHR system.
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May 30, 2012
James Deck
Blog
Healing Healthcare in America with Technology
Sometimes healthcare hits close to home, and by that I mean it reaches out from behind the computer screens and conference podiums I sit so often in front of and grabs me by the shoulders, shaking me out of my blogging bubble with the message that this state of care we’re all living in needs to get better, quickly.
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May 18, 2012
Jennifer Dennard
Blog
Content Management and Workflow Automation: Critical to Successful EMR Implementation
Although many healthcare organizations have made the transition, a significant number continue to struggle with the implementation of EMR technology.
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April 18, 2012
Shawn Curtiss
Blog
Promoting Patient Engagement in Meaningful Use
The proposed rule for Stage 2 Meaningful Use has a strong emphasis on patient engagement. This is certainly a good thing, and I am very glad to see the focus put on this area.
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April 17, 2012
Brian Ahier
Blog
Why clinical documentation improvement is so important to hospitals
No matter what the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) decide to do with the ICD-10 implementation deadline, clinical documentation improvement (CDI) may become a survival tactic for hospitals.
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April 4, 2012
Carl Natale
Blog
What I learned at HIMSS about developments in health IT for the rest of 2012
Like many of you, I made the annual pilgrimage to the HIMSS Conference last month but I didn’t write much publicly about it. Here’s what I learned while I was in Vegas and my takeaways for the rest of the year.
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March 27, 2012
Shahid Shah
Blog
St. Jude Medical advances its remote patient monitoring system with mobile notifications
St. Jude Medical, Inc., a global medical device company, today announced the launch of its Merlin.net® Patient Care Network (PCN) version 5.0. This update features enhancements to the Internet-based repository of patient and implantable device data that provide physicians easier access to important alerts and improve efficiency of data transmission to electronic health records (EHR).
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October 10, 2011
Industry News Release
Press Release
T-System highlights ED physician efficiency with EHRs at ACEP scientific assembly
T-System, Inc. will demonstrate how going electronic can be both an easy and efficient way to document patient care in the emergency department (ED) at this week's American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) 2011 Scientific Assembly in San Francisco. To showcase the usability and intuitive design of its solutions, T-System will host a "virtual" ED at booth #1502. Booth visitors will be able to visualize the solutions' use in a real patient care setting and walk up and try the solutions for themselves.
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October 10, 2011
Elizabeth Hart, Healthcare Industry Solutions
Press Release
Four more chiropractors successfully meet “Meaningful Use” with the ACOM Health RAPID EHR Software
ACOM Health, a market leader in Chiropractic EHR systems, today announced that it has four additional chiropractors who have now achieved meaningful use by using RAPID Complete EHR certified software. Furthermore, there are another 150 chiropractors who have installed the EHR software before the October 1st deadline and are now in position to qualify for the stimulus in 2011, receiving as much as $6 Million over the term of the incentive program. This is a great milestone that puts ACOM Health in a very unique position as the market leader and way ahead of most of the competitive products in the Chiropractic space.
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October 5, 2011
Industry News Release
Press Release
NaviNet launches groundbreaking Doc Xchange solution
NaviNet, America’s largest real-time healthcare communications network, serving close to 900,000 healthcare professionals, today announced the launch of the NaviNet Doc Xchange program. NaviNet Doc Xchange is an innovative solution that enables providers to send content-agnostic medical documentation electronically to a variety of trading partners, including other provider offices and hospitals, health plans, government organizations, and health information exchanges (HIEs).
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October 5, 2011
Industry News Release
Press Release
DR Systems to exhibit imaging-centric Meaningful Use ambulatory EHR at RSNA
DR Systems, one of the most respected names in healthcare information systems, will be exhibiting its MU Imaging EHR -- a complete, cloud-based, imaging-centric ambulatory electronic health record -- at RSNA 2011.
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October 5, 2011
Industry News Release
Press Release
Kane Community Hospital achieves stage 1 Meaningful Use
Healthland, America's market leader of healthcare information technology solutions for rural hospitals, today announced that Kane Community Hospital has achieved Stage 1 Meaningful Use. Kane Community Hospital, an affiliate of UPMC Hamot, is a 31-bed acute care rural hospital based in Kane, Pa. After a successful 90-day reporting period of its comprehensive electronic health record (EHR) capabilities, the hospital will receive funding under the Medicare EHR Incentive Program.
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September 30, 2011
Industry News Release
Press Release
Rothman Institute Orthopaedics introduces orthopaedic-specific outcomes-based EMR to its 80+ providers
The Rothman Institute (RI), the region’s largest orthopaedic practice, based in Philadelphia, PA, is pleased to announce its recent decision to fulfill upcoming meaningful use requirements using a collaborative approach for electronic medical records (EMR). Teaming with SRS and URS (Universal Research Solutions), the RI will introduce a novel concept for its physicians to meet meaningful use requirements most efficiently by introducing the first Orthopaedic-specific, outcome-based EMR solution.
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September 27, 2011
Industry News Release
Press Release
Welch Allyn and Wavelength Information Services, Inc. partner to increase EHR adoption
Welch Allyn, a leading global provider of frontline medical products and solutions, today announced it is partnering with Wavelength Information Services, Inc. (Wavelength) to offer its clients a unique service designed to ease the process of selecting and preparing for an electronic health record (EHR) system. Wavelength is a Maryland-based healthcare IT outsourcing and systems integration firm whose comprehensive range of programs and services include system implementation, integration, networking, optimization, project management, programming, custom reporting, education and knowledge transfer expertise. It is a sub-recipient partner of the Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients (CRISP) Regional Extension Centers (REC) system.
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September 27, 2011
Industry News Release
Press Release
4medica unveils mobile app to give physicians 24/7 access to critical data
4medica, provider of the industry's leading cloud software-as-a-service (SaaS) Integrated Electronic Health Record (iEHR(SM)) solution, today announced launching the first version of its 4medica Mobile app for smartphones and tablets to give physicians 24/7 access to up-to-date clinical data whenever and wherever needed. Whether on rounds, at home or working remote, doctors can view critical laboratory, pathology and radiology results, demographics, notes, patient lists and trending data from multiple sources and render informed decisions via the iPhone®, iPad®, BlackBerry® 6+ and Android™ smartphones and tablets.
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September 26, 2011
Industry News Release
Press Release
PHYAURA releases open source EHR download and provides an online community for healthcare providers
PHYAURA, LLC has launched its highly anticipated community edition of PHYAURA EHR. PHYAURA EHR community edition is free and open source and allows all healthcare practitioners in the United States to document clinical notes, schedule office visits, and bill for medical services, all without any vendor lock in. PHYAURA has also established a new open source healthcare community to bring professional technology companies and users together for enhanced collaboration.
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September 23, 2011
Healthcare IT News Staff
Press Release
Lenawee County Clinic is first M-CEITA practice to achieve meaningful use of Electronic Health Records
Health Specialists of Lenawee, P.C. in Tecumseh, Michigan, is the first practice working with the Michigan Center for Effective IT Adoption (M-CEITA) to have achieved “meaningful use” of a certified electronic health record (EHR).
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September 22, 2011
Industry News Release
Press Release
BioClinica WebSend effects rapid change in clinical trial image management
BioClinica®, Inc., a global provider of clinical trial management solutions, announced that BioClinica WebSend has been included in more than 90% of its 2011 imaging core lab business signings. WebSend benefits clinical trials by speeding access to clinical imaging data while reducing errors and costs by securely sending medical images over the Internet, rather than using courier services.
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September 21, 2011
Industry News Release
Press Release