News Archive
15 September 2009
Open source software may unify the medical records realmby Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols for Computerworld
As a part of the stimulus package, some $19 billion dollars have been earmarked for Medicare and Medicaid technology incentives over the next five years. This program is known as HITECH, short for Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health.
8 September 2009
New recommendations can help health providers prepare for electronic record pushby Rob Cahill for University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
A new framework of recommendations created by health informatics researchers may help doctors and hospitals prepare for a federal initiative to expand the use of EHRs.
24 August 2009
EHRs have open-source software alternativesby Pamela Lewis Dolan for Amednews
The American Medical Association has spoken in favor of open-source. It adopted policy at its Annual Meeting in June supporting EMR open-source coding that meets meaningful use criteria, as defined by the ONC.
July/August 2009
Code Redby Phillip Longman for Washington Monthly
It is a surprise that twenty years after the digital revolution, only 1.5 percent of hospitals have integrated IT systems today and half of those are government hospitals.
8 June 2009
Report: VA's IT plans threaten health care servicesby Peter Buxbaum for Government Health IT
A summary the damning report by the federal Inspector General.
1 June 2009
Auditor blasts VA for poor IT management and oversightby Bob Brewin for Nextgov
A summary of the Inspector General's condemnation of VISTA management within VA.
22 February 2009
View from the trenches: an interview with HL7's Charles Jaffe, M.D.by Andy Updegrove for ConsortiumInfo.org
HL7 has been at the center of global EHR development since 1987, as well as a key player in the more recent U.S. efforts to design and implement a national EHR system by 2014. In this interview, HL7 CEO Charles Jaffe, M.D. shares his perspective on what's been accomplished, what remains to be done, and where the critical decisions that will lead to success or failure in creating a national EHR system must be made.
10 February 2009
Open letter to Obama: Uncle Sam should go open sourceby Ryan Paul for Ars Technica
The author talks about a group of prominent open source software vendors who have written an open letter to the Obama administration encouraging a broader adoption of open source software. In their letter they try to impress upon the new president the potential benefits of formulating a strong strategy for open source adoption. The author also discusses some excerpts taken from the letter.
27 September 2008
Open source software a booster shot for heath care?by Kristin Shoemaker for OStatic
The Health-e Information Technology Act of 2008 offers incentives for health care providers to move to an open, shared platform for health records. There are financial incentives proposed to encourage health care providers to adopt this platform, but even when the government incentives disappear, the financial benefits are likely to continue. Open source is often talked about in terms of fostering innovation, stability, and security, and without a doubt those are important reasons to encourage its use. Sometimes, though, the reasons for adoption are far more simplistic, far more human, and infinitely more important -- sharing code, and the information it contains and manipulates, can save lives.
24 June 2008
Why open source and the net must play a role in medicineby Ashley Laurel Wilson for PC World
During his presentation at the Red Hat Summit in Boston, Dr. John Halamka, CIO of Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, discussed four key reasons why medical records should be stored on line. Storage, compliance, patient access and community are among the suprememly productive Halamka's supporting reasons for his claim that on line medical records will ensure a national standard of healthcare. Issues faced by the medical community include storage, compliance benefits, and patient access.
8 April 2008
Open source is good for your healthby Matthew Aslett for The 451 Group
Open Health Tools is a new project to create standards and interoperable systems for accessing electronic health records. The results will be available under an open source agreement so anyone may utilize them to provision interoperable healthcare platforms that will link clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, and other points of care to make the healthcare system more efficient.