News Clips

Are Cell Phones Leading the mHealth Revolution?

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According to this article from the Global Health Council Magazine, cell phone use in developing countries is driving a new industry in health-related electronic applications for programmes that range from diagnosis and health worker education to social marketing and the flow of emergency food rations, many focused on geographically remote areas. Read More »

Bill Would Boost Open-Source EHRs for Rural Use

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West Virginia, a small, mostly rural state, is the adopted home of Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller, and, arguably, also where open-source healthcare information technology has been most widely adopted.

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EpiSurveyor and the Call For Open Source Mobile Healthcare Applications

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EpiSurveyor...is an open source tool designed to allow anyone in the world to create handheld data entry forms, use them to collect data on mobile devices, and transfer the data to other devices for analysis

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The Dubious Promise Of Digital Medicine

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GE, Google, and others, in a stimulus-fueled frenzy, are piling into the business. But electronic health records have a dubious history Read More »

Use of Electronic Health Records in U.S. Hospitals

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The U.S. health care system faces challenges on multiple fronts, including rising costs and inconsistent quality. Health information technology, especially electronic health records, has the potential to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of health care providers. Methods to speed the adoption of health information technology have received bipartisan support among U.S. policymakers, and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has made the promotion of a national, interoperable health information system a priority. Read More »

Obama Calls for Lifetime Military e-Health Record

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President Barack Obama asked the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to accomplish what for the last two years has been a mostly a struggle: building a "unified lifetime electronic record" for members of the military services. Read More »

Medsphere Announces Open Source Code Release for EHR Solution

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OpenVista Interface Domain, CIS, and Server Code Now Available for Download on www.medsphere.org Read More »

VA program to schedule patient appointments on verge of collapse

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An eight-year-old, $167 million project to develop a core computer application to schedule patient appointments at hospitals run by the Veterans Affairs Department has all but collapsed, and senior executives are worried about the repercussions it could cause on the Hill and in the White House, according to an internal memo obtained by Nextgov. Read More »

DOD, VA Set New Target for Joint Lifetime Health Record

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The Defense and Veterans Affairs departments have formed a working group to pursue a joint lifetime electronic heath and benefits record for service members, veterans, and their families. Read More »

No Small Change for the Health Information Economy

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...substitutability goes beyond interoperability. Just as consumers may swap out applications on their iPhones, physicians should be able to readily replace one referral-management system with another. Companies are beginning to offer modular services driven by common data elements found in claims, EHRs, and PCHRs.

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Networking out of natural disasters

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 -Open-source software could transform response to disease outbreaks and natural disasters. Read More »

AHLTA is Intolerable

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30 years ago, in December 1978, I attended a meeting with folks from the VA, DoD, Indian Health Service, and others about building a shared software infrastructure for medical records.

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Medsphere Introduces EHR Certification Courses with Launch of Training University

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Increasing Demand for OpenVista Spurs Open Source Leader to Partner with maxIT Healthcare for Implementation Services

Medsphere Systems Corporation, the leading provider of open-source healthcare IT solutions, today announced the successful launch of Medsphere University. This specialized training and certification program is Medsphere’s initial foray into training collaborative business partners to implement OpenVista, the company’s flagship electronic health record (EHR) solution. Read More »

Kenneth W. Kizer and Peter J. Groen: W.Va. a Leader in Health Info

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West Virginia has quietly become a national leader in the use of health information technology, particularly in the area of "open-source" electronic health record solutions that are used by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and Indian Health Service. These high-value systems...have been adapted and are being used in a number of innovative ways to improve the health of West Virginians. Read More »

Transforming Health Care in West Virginia

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Improving the health status of rural West Virginia residents requires a new approach to chronic care supported by information technology.

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