With a $10.5 million CMS Innovation Grant, the FMBHP project hopes to reduce readmissions and improve transition of care for rural patients.

Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat, will continue focusing on implementation of the Affordable Care Act, among other top priorities, until he retires in 2014.

While only a bit more than half of Canadian primary care doctors have adopted EHRs so far, the benefits since adoption started growing in 2006 are estimated at close to $1.3 billion, from reduced administration and duplicate testing.

Two cooperative opportunities will drive a hybrid approach of comparative effectiveness research that includes a broad array of participants, including patients and researchers, that hold the potential to enable patients with actionable information.

While some western Colorado physicians participating in the ONC's Beacon Community learning collaborative have struggled with technical issues, the growth of the medical home model and process improvement shows the potential of HIE and IT tools, according to the Commonwealth Fund.

State governments have a big job ahead in educating the public during the next several months as marketplaces are established. Many citizens will need hand-holding to understand the best healthcare option for them.

A new report recommends myriad ways to reform payment, taxes, HIT and other programs essentially en route to more efficient and effective care delivery, with the goal of $560 billion worth of deficit reduction in the coming decade.

In its 2014 budget proposal, the CDC is seeking $40 million to modernize its infectious disease informatics and sequencing tools. As antibiotic-resistant bacteria grow and new pathogens like H7N9 evolve, the CDC sees the new systems as a long-term investment.

Personalized medicine, better healthcare and what one presenter referred to as "real wisdom" will all require the collection and use of big data, speakers said at the conference.