A new survey suggests defensive medicine — ordering unnecessary tests for fear of lawsuits — may become more common because younger physicians are more likely to have picked it up in training, according to release by Jackson Healthcare.

Hospitals that used electronic health records improved mortality rates but did not save money or reduce patient complications, a decade-long study of 326 California hospitals suggests, according to a report in the Arizona Republic.

The Department of Health and Human Services launched its data breach information website in February and has since received 64 reported incidences, affecting over 1 million people, according to a report in American Medical News.

The Premier healthcare alliance will spend $86 million in the next three years for enhancement of IT to accommodate accountable care organizations and other new delivery models under health reform, according to a Premier news release.

Researchers at Walter Reed Army Medical Base in Bethesda, Md., using a technique developed by Chicago-area physician Eugene Lipov, MD, have documented successful cases of treating combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder with a stellate ganglion block, according to a news release…

CareFusion, a global medical device company, and Cerner Corp., a global provider of healthcare solutions and services, have announced an agreement to improve data communication between CareFusion Pyxis medication dispensing, supply and anesthesiology systems, and CareAware, Cerner's integrated device connectivity…

Medicity, the nation's largest clinical health information exchange vendor, announced that it is collaborating with Emdeon, the nation's largest financial and administrative health information exchange solution provider, to create the first "converged" national health information exchange, according to a Medicity…

A recent report in Mass High Tech: The Journal of New England Technology outlined five key barriers to healthcare providers' implementation of electronic health records as well as ways providers in Massachusetts were addressing these concerns.

The number of patients affected by a 2009 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee data breach has nearly doubled from an estimated 521,761 in March to nearly 1 million, according to a report by American Medical News.

The U.S. Justice Department announced it would not challenge a proposal to establish an information exchange program with data on the costs and efficiencies of some 300 hospitals in California, according to a Justice Department news release.