Patient Safety and Quality Healthcare (PSQH) had the opportunity recently to talk with Manuel Lowenhaupt, MD, about the effectiveness of computerized provider order entry (CPOE) as a safety tool and opportunities that the technology offers.

Deciding to adopt an electronic medical record (EMR) is one of the most important decisions made by any practice. The transition to an EMR from a paper system can be challenging because it changes the way everyone works.

Usually, summer is a time for folks in Washington, D.C., to flee town and enjoy cool weather outside the Capitol Beltway. This summer has been anything but usual.

Walter McClure, one of the nation’s most astute health policy analysts, is rightfully recognized as one of the principal architects of strategies to harness market forces as an instrument for healthcare system reform (Business Week, 1982; Iglehart, 1988).

The healthcare system in the United States is in desperate need of disruptive innovation. Encouraged by our culture of “new, bigger, quicker, better,” technology innovates upward to create specialized products and services.

The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) is a national body (part of the National Health Service [NHS]) in England, established in 2001 to promote patient safety.

Are you a patient safety officer? Are you engaged in a project that is particularly exciting? Have you solved a difficult problem recently? Is your work posing challenges you never thought you’d face? Have you thought about seeing your ideas in print?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 7 billion tests are run each year in medical laboratories throughout the United States, contributing to more than 70% of all medical decisions (Boone, 2003).

As the buzz around the potential for radio frequency identification (RFID) in healthcare increases, so do the questions related to its practicality and payback. Answers vary because RFID represents an array of technologies, each with its own requirements and value for healthcare.

Two automatic identification technologies, neither “new” in the sense of being recent developments, are vying for acceptance in the healthcare field.