(Editor's note: The following blog was written by Mark McGraw, an associate editor on staff at ADVANCE.) It's movie night, and you're not interested in subtitles or surrealism. Maybe next week you'll go for the one with the ''Winner: Best Foreign Language Film, 2008 Venice Film Festival'' sticker on it. But tonight you're in the mood for a ...

If you've been following Jay's blog, ''XY Files in and MT World,'' recently, you know there have been some frightening reports of medical records being sold overseas. It's enough to make you hunker down in the States and demand your records stay local. On the contrary, some patients are ditching domestic services and seeking medical care abroad. ...

At a news conference yesterday, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) unveiled its Health Information Bill of Rights, a set of seven principles designed to protect and promote patient access to personal health information. Craig May, AHIMA public relations, called the Bill of Rights ''an extraordinary stride in patient ...

With all the prep for next week's American Health Information Management Association Convention and Exhibit and our HIM Team of the Year coverage (Yes, we have a winner!), I've been neglecting my Google Alerts. Well, I found some time this morning to browse the news on electronic health records (EHRs), and there's a whole lot of good, bad and ...

I'm wrapping up an extensive print and online package about social media for our September issue (Look for it next week!), and with all the reading, interviewing and, yes, tweeting I did to research the phenomenon, I thought I'd heard everything. Well, this morning I came across this blog, which references another blog (isn't linking great?) ...

The last time I had surgery I distinctly remember how grateful I was that they put me to sleep in the first few minutes in the OR. Seeing all the equipment and those faces behind masks and gowns, while reassuring that I was indeed in the correct place, made me a little nervous but happy to soon be oblivious to what was about to happen.  ...

There's been quite a buzz at ADVANCE headquarters about the television phenomena ''Nurse Jackie'' and ''HawthoRNe.'' Staffers wonder: is it realistic, do nurses approve of the portrayal and--at least around the HIM desk--how many HIPAA violations can they pack into one episode? If the writers are anything like the ''Law and Order'' crew and want ...

Over the last several weeks the media has overloaded us with obsessive coverage of the untimely death of Michael Jackson. I have been appalled at the feeding frenzy surrounding the details of his death. I say enough already and let this poor man finally rest in peace. The thing that truly upsets me was the appearance of Mr. Jackson’s ...

I love to toss off the headset and get a change of scenery, and find myself occasionally rummaging around other Advance boards to see what's up (did you even notice they've got like 243 magazines skewed toward different areas in health care?) Lately, we've also been getting crossover blogs here and as usual, I've found a way to pretty much ignore ...

[Editor's note: This is a guest blog by ADVANCE for Nurses editor Lyn A.E. McCafferty, who contributes to the ''ADVANCE Perspective: Nurses'' blog featured on the ADVANCE for Nurses Web site.]   If you think the fictional Nurse Jackie and HawthoRNe are bad for nursing's image, just wait until you hear about one real-life nurse ...