Telemedical doctor off the hook

Medical regulators for the state of Iowa say they will not punish a Planned Parenthood doctor for prescribing mifepristone, also known as RU-486 or the abortion pill, remotely through telemedicine, reveals Ms. Magazine.

Last year, Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group, filled a formal complaint with the Iowa State Board of Medicine arguing that the video method did not meet the state law requiring medical doctors be present for the administration of the pill.

Planned Parenthood clinics in Iowa introduced a programme that enables mifepristone, a drug intended to terminate a pregnancy in its early stages, to be administered to patients while video conferencing with their doctors. This practice, known as telemedicine, is designed to provide women living in remote and rural areas of Iowa with abortion services.

Siemens Healthcare is allying with Endosense on the development of a new software application that makes it easier for electro-physiologists to conduct ablation procedures, says Zenopa.

The collaboration will see Siemens combine its existing electrophysiology solutions with contact-force data provided by Endosense's TactiCath force-sensing ablation catheter.

This will allow for the creation of software that provides a three-dimensional anatomic heart model during catheter ablations, making it easy for clinicians to visualise catheter-tip-to-tissue contact force.

Survey data released by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology show that 81% of the US' hospitals and 41% of office-based physicians intend to register for federal incentive payments for adoption and meaningful use of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology, says Information Week.

ONC officials say the survey's results are an encouraging sign that healthcare delivery organisations plan to get on board with the government's Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programmes - a key initiative to modernise the nation's health IT infrastructure.

Registration for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs began on 3 January, with the first incentive payments issued earlier this month in two states - Oklahoma and Kentucky.