Washington, D.C., July 18, 2011—A new report from the National Research Council recommends steps the Food and Drug Administration and other agencies and professional associations can take to ensure that the medical devices and health information technology used in home health care are easy and safe for laypeople to use and that caregivers, whether formal or informal, are well-trained.

Greensburg, Pennsylvania, July 15, 2011— Excela Health, a not-for-profit health system in Westmoreland County, announced it has selected the RF Assure™  Detection System for use in its surgical suites system-wide to prevent the occurrence of retained surgical items (RSI).

The Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ) has developed a new toolkit designed to help optimize the effectiveness of healthcare information technology (health IT) in ambulatory care.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, July 13, 2011—Sermo, Inc., the largest online network in the United States exclusive to physicians, introduced Sermo Mobile, an application that allows physicians to access the country’s greatest concentration of medical knowledge in real-time. Sermo Mobile builds on Sermo’s current web platform, an online resource where physicians from across 68 specialties and all 50 states collaborate, discuss and consult with each other to provide the highest quality care to their patients.