This guest column was written by Dinah Bird, PhD, and Kim Renners, MBA.

Investment portfolio diversification and risk management are crucial components to an investment portfolio. It reduces risk and can potentially maximize returns. 

It has been a roller-coaster ride for health information technology in 2011. Slow but steady progress has ramped up adoption of electronic health records, but the number of reported health data breaches is disturbing. Many organizations use mobile health but lack policies on the devices; e-prescribing is up but physicians aren’t using all the available functions.

What's the best way for physicians to prepare for EHR (Electronic Health Records) training for themselves and their offices?

In a tough economic climate, it’s no wonder that the belt-tightening has trickled down to IT investments. Many physicians are scaling down their plans and adopting a wait-and-see approach -- hospitals are considering holding off renovations or plans to increase capacity and the purchase of clinical technology or equipment is being pushed to the back burner. Among these downsides, though, there is a silver lining: practices are now being forced to move toward efficiencies in health information technology (HIT).