In my 17-year career, I’ve witnessed exponential growth in the QA field. Spending on quality assurance and testing now represents about a quarter of a typical IT organization budget, and the job opportunities and salaries for test professionals have grown as a function of this increased focus on software quality. Frankly, some in IT are […]
The year ahead is shaping up as a critical one for physician adoption of health IT. Starting in 2015, eligible providers are subject to Medicare reimbursement penalties if they fail to participate in the Medicare Electronic Health Records (EHR) Incentive Program. Then on October 1, if there are no further delays, the ICD-10 implementation deadline kicks in triggering a mandatory switchover […]
Funny, hearing the command “Just relax!” doesn’t do anything to settle your nerves if they’ve been rattled. We can be unnerved by all kinds of factors while on the job, from sleep deprivation to mood fluctuations to high-stress situations. If you ever feel like you’re going to lose it, try one (or all) of the […]
As the holiday season gets into swing, many of us will be traveling, shopping, eating and enjoying other seasonal pastimes that are, for better or worse, now aided by pretty sophisticated software. That’s why I give thanks for my fellow quality assurance and testing pros. They work behind the scenes to improve and debug the […]
Even though only 26% of physicians access their EHR from a tablet or mobile device, those users are more satisfied with their EHR system, according to the new EHR UserView Survey from Software Advice. The survey polled nearly 600 physician users about their current EHR systems’ key benefits and challenges and their future healthcare IT […]
A majority of healthcare providers in a new survey say they used last year’s ICD-10 implementation delay to their advantage and are prepared to start testing. A newly released ICD-10 readiness survey from the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) says that 65% of respondents could begin end-to-end testing prior to the fourth quarter of 2015, […]
The creation of a Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE) represents an organizational commitment to software quality. And as I’ve written recently, more IT organizations are adopting a TCoE model, according to the 2014-15 World Quality Report from HP, Capgemini and Sogeti (see chart below). But for every organization investing in quality, there are plenty of others that: Rush to […]
With more than 3,000 known Ebola cases and 1,500 deaths from the virus, public health officials and healthcare organizations are eager to track the spread of Ebola and share this data with others in the industry. Currently, there is no specific ICD-9 code for Ebola; it's tracked in hospitals that have not updated to ICD-10 with […]
Earlier this month, I participated in the StarWest Conference for software testers and quality assurance professionals at Anaheim, California. Many of the best and brightest in our industry attended, and it was clear to me that we are entering a period of rapid innovation and growth in the QA and testing arena. New technology and […]
The frequency of enterprise software releases and adoption of cloud and mobile technologies are just some of the factors driving increased spend and focus on quality assurance and testing. But QAT practices can vary greatly from one IT organization to the next. So how do you stack up against others? This short assessment should help […]
An Ebola patient is seen in the ED and discharged. The hospital points to its EHR software as the culprit. Alas, if it were only that simple. In fact, as we all are now aware, the EHR has been exonerated (in an unusual and carefully worded clarification). The patient has died. And we as physicians […]
With the ICD-10 countdown clock again ticking toward the October 1, 2015, compliance deadline, I’m reminded of the rush to complete Y2K projects in 1999. There is a lot of work to do and less than year left to do it. The deadline represents thousands of hours of testing work for QA professionals and applications […]