The U.S. information technology sector let go of 111,900 positions in April, totaling about 1 percent of its 12.1 million-strong workforce, according to CompTIA.

Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic will use artificial intelligence software from U.K. health tech company Ultromics to analyze echocardiograms of COVID-19 patients to identify how the virus affects the cardiovascular system. 

St. Louis-based Ascension is sending mobile COVID-19 testing labs to patients' homes in Texas, according to The Stephenville Empire-Tribune.

Boston-based Mass General Brigham named 12 technologies and innovations that will have the most significant effect on healthcare through the end of 2021 based on interviews with Harvard faculty.

Hospitals in many regions across the U.S. are beginning to resume elective surgeries and develop a strategy to return some remote workers to the hospital. But it won't be an instantaneous move and CIOs will be at the forefront to make processes in the hospital as contactless as possible.

During the COVID-19 public health emergency, the FDA has used its emergency use authorization to allow the use of unapproved medical devices or unapproved uses of authorized medical devices to combat the virus. 

The mother of a former patient of Ann and Robert Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago filed a lawsuit on May 8 against the hospital over a medical records privacy breach, according to The Chicago Sun-Times.

May 7 was World Password Day, celebrated as a reminder to strengthen online passwords.

New York City tapped Salesforce to build a COVID-19 contact tracing program complete with a call center and customer relationship and case management system to better track spread of infection, according to CNBC.

Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic partnered with Entercom Communications to launch a radio campaign  in Detroit, New York City, Miami and Chicago May 7 seeking convalescent plasma donations for hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Houston Methodist Hospital used machine-learning algorithms and video cameras to create a clinical command center that allows clinicians to provide remote care for COVID-19 patients in intensive care units, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The U.S. Department for Homeland Security and the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre are warning hospitals and healthcare organizations that there could be an increase in cyberattacks targeting them to gain COVID-19 patient data.

Allscripts, Cerner and Meditech posted their respective financial performances for the first quarter of 2020, all reporting net income losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

CIOs from across industries at competing companies and organizations are coming together to share best practices for IT during the pandemic.

Johnson City, Tenn.-based Ballad Health entered into a strategic partnership with Ensemble Health Partners to develop a new regional operations center in the Appalachian Highlands to support IT and revenue cycle systems.

During a disruption, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare organizations may identify flaws in their existing workflows. While it may be a challenge to address these flaws amid a crisis, there are key steps healthcare leaders can take to drive innovation at their organizations no matter what they are up against, explained Tom Tonkin, PhD, Cornerstone OnDemand senior principal of thought-leadership and advisory services, in an April 28 webinar. 

State governments and health departments decide how to manage COVID-19 testing, including collecting, organizing and reporting data. This in turn can create disparities among states and affect the country's pandemic response, according to MIT Technology Review.

Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic experienced significant drops in patient satisfaction when it switched from a Cerner EHR to an Epic system in 2017-18, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.

The Pew Charitable Trusts penned a letter this week to Congressional leaders asking the government to address patient matching issues that may inhibit COVID-19 contact tracing efforts and future vaccine administration.

Clinicians at Charlotte, N.C.-based Atrium Health are connecting with patients via baby monitors to reduce personal protective equipment use and the spread of COVID-19.