Farzad Mostashari: Focusing on moving doctors into the digital age

News outlets report on health information technology developments, including a profile of Farzad Mostashari and a push by governors to improve health IT use.

Kaiser Health News: Farzad Mostashari Is A Man On A Digital Mission
New York hookers spreading HIV. Killer mosquitos. An anthrax-toting terrorist. An urban-scape rife with the sick and poor. These are just some of the challenges tackled by Farzad Mostashari, a Yale-educated physician, epidemiologist and self-confessed computer nerd. His current mission: moving doctors from the Age of Gutenberg into the 21st century. For starters, he'd like them to use e-mail at the office (Mitchell, 3/9).

And Modern Healthcare offers a pair of stories related to Health IT news --

Modern Healthcare: Governors Call On States To Improve IT Use
States could make better use of information technology to improve services to their residents and be more efficient, according to a new report and accompanying white paper from the National Governors Association. The 12-page white paper "Top IT Actions to Save States Money and Boost Efficiency" lauds Kansas for using IT to help identify a form of employer fraud that impacts state-administered employee health benefits costs (Conn, 3/8).

Modern Healthcare: Midwest Health Organizations Form 'Virtual' Network
Seven Upper Midwest hospitals and health systems and a medical college in Milwaukee have banded together in a "virtual health care network" called Quality Health Solutions that will allow the members in the accountable care group to pursue population-based health initiatives and new health insurance products (Carlson, 3/8).