Photo: Rosenfeld Media via Flickr
The federal office that oversees electronic health record implementation at hospitals, physician offices and other venues announced last week that it is relaxing rules which in the past helped officials determine whether EHR products on the market meet government standards.
In response, some leading provider groups expressed concern that easing such oversight could leave hospitals and physicians with sub-par products. Continue reading
Photo: nlafferty via Flickr
The agency responsible for overseeing dental education in the United States is moving forward with plans to establish a national accreditation process for dental therapist training programs.
In a move that was greeted with both criticism and praise, the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) voted Aug. 7 to begin the accreditation process for programs to train non-dentists to perform certain dental procedures, including drilling and extracting teeth.
Such providers are already providing care on tribal lands in Alaska as well as in Minnesota. A number of other states are considering employing the dental therapists, who work as part of a team of providers supervised by dentists. Continue reading
