News

Open Source Helps Spokane Data Exchange Pilot Go Live In Record Time

The use of open source software made it possible to deploy the fourth data exchange pilot between the Department of  Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of Defense (DoD), and private sector medical facilities in record time. The Spokane Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER) went live less than eight weeks after the start of the project. The VLER is intended to provide seamless access to the medical record of veterans and military personnel irregardless of where they receive medical treatment. Read More »

Seven Open Source EHRs Certified To Date

The open source community is in a roll when it comes to official certification for open source EHR's. With the announcement today that WorldVistA EHR has been certified for "meaningful use" as an inpatient EHR, there are now a total of six seven certified EHRs in either the ambulatory or the inpatient categories. Some of the open source EHR's have been certified in both categories. 

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WorldVistA EHR Receives Meaningful Use Certification

The open source WorldVistA EHR has just received full meaningful use certification as an electronic health record (EHR) in inpatient settings. The detailed certification criteria can be seen here. WorldVistA EHR is a community-supported version of the VA's world-class VistA EHR. Read More »

VA Begins Implementation of Open Source EHR

VA recently announced that we’ve taken a big step in the implementation of the open source software model for VistA: the selection of The Informatics Application Group (tiag), an innovative technology services company, to design and launch the Custodial Agent. Over the next several months, we will be working closely with tiag and their partners to create a Custodial Agent to provide structure for the community. One of the primary functions of the CA is to take care of the EHR: to make sure that it is freely available (like it is today), that new components are compatible with the existing software, and that the open source software licenses promote innovation and access. To accomplish this, the CA will maintain a code repository that contains all of the software–the code VA uses as well as new components we may consider–and, importantly, is universally accessible.
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VistA to be deployed in North Carolina

Major news for the VistA software community. After many years of research and preparation, the State of North Carolina will start an initial implementation of VistA in one of its behavioral health facilities. The initial deployment will take place at Central Regional Hospital (CRH), a state psychiatric hospital located in Butner. Read More »

Latin American Conference on Health Informatics

The health IT community in Latin America will be holding a major conference in Mexico next week. The conference, titled "The Latin-American Conference on Health Informatics" will feature a large number of sessions and workshops on health IT collaboration with an impressive line up of speakers. Read More »

Open Source mHealth Solutions Spreading Rapidly

There are already over 4 billion mobile devices in use around the world — 64 percent of them are in the hands of people living in emerging market economies — and the numbers are only growing. In the coming decade, innovative mobile health (mHealth) solutions will dramatically change the daily clinical practices of many health care providers and the lives of their patients. Many of these will be open source solutions, e.g. Sana, eMOCHA, JavaROSA. Read More »

Irish Government Should Emulate Obama's Open Data Strategy

The Irish Government is being called upon to open up all data to citizens and enterprising software developers. By embracing open data principles, open source technology and cloud computing, it is envisaged Ireland could follow in the steps of the U.S. government and European nations like Norway that have embraced open data principles to great success. Read More »

Baker and Levin to Speak at WorldVistA Meeting

WorldVistA just announced that the VA's CIO, Roger Baker, and its CTO, Dr. Peter Levin, will both be speaking at the community's upcoming meeting in Fairfax, VA. The 23rd VistA Community Meeting will take place at George Mason University May 23-25.

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OSCON Health Track Schedule Released

The schedule for the health track at O'Reilly's 2011 Open Source Convention (OSCON) in Portland, Oregon, has just been released. This is one of the most important open health conferences this year. There have been some fantastic developments in this area around the world from Africa, to Asia, Latin America, Europe, and here in the U.S..

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