News Clips

Sana Mobile: Connecting Big-City Care to Patients in Remote Villages

Mohini Bhavsar | MobileActive.org | September 17, 2010

Decision-making support for nurses and health workers, even when connectivity is poor or low, is possible with Sana Mobile, an Android-based mobile health application

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Government Commits to Open Source Software [UK]

Jenny Williams | ComputerWeekly.com | September 17, 2010

The government has reiterated its commitment to using open source software based on its "inherent flexibility" and says it will be the preferred option when cost is not an issue.

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PODCAST: One-on-One w/Kern Medical Center CIO Bill Fawns, Chapter 1

Anthony Guerra | HealthsystemCIO.com | September 16, 2010

As one of the few healthcare CIOs who didn’t grow up in the industry, Bill Fawns may be a bit more willing to look at different solutions to his organization’s software issues. And while Medsphere’s OpenVista technology was born and raised in the VA, it’s still seen by many lifers as the unconventional choice. Perhaps that’s why the two have come together in Kern Medical Center’s quest for an EMR that will earn it Meaningful Use monies. Read More »

Hoboken University Medical Center Selects Medsphere's OpenVista Solution to Improve Patient Care, Achieve Meaningful Use

Press Release | Medsphere, Hoboken University Medical Center , NITHealth | September 15, 2010

New Jersey hospital chooses reliable and proven open source EHR to decrease costs, increase revenue and maximize ARRA stimulus money Read More »

The Endless War

Joseph Conn | Modern Healthcare | September 14, 2010

Veteran IT watchers who caught the webcast of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee last week saw something all too familiar. Read More »

VA's Levin: 'Blue Button' First Step to Lifetime EHR

Mary Mosquera | Government Health IT | September 13, 2010

The recently installed "blue button" on the Veteran Affairs Department's MyHealtheVet portal represents a first step toward the type of full access to their personal health records veterans can expect to see when the VA stands up the virtual lifetime electronic record (VLER). Read More »

Medical Industry Ties Often Undisclosed in Journals

Duff Wilson | New York Times | September 13, 2010

Twenty-five out of 32 highly paid consultants to medical device companies in 2007, or their publishers, failed to reveal the financial connections in journal articles the following year, according to a study released on Monday.

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A Wikipedia/Linux for global healthcare information?

Thomas Lee | Med City News | September 13, 2010

The open source movement already has produced innovations like online encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Linux operating system. Some healthcare advocates want to apply the open concept to medicine. Dubbed “collaborative clinical care networks,” these databases offer doctors, patients and researchers ways to enter, search and access a vast pool of clinical and anecdotal data unavailable to any one person or institution.

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DOD Brainstorms New Digital Health Record System

Alice Lipowicz | Federal Computer Week | September 12, 2010

The Defense Department is preparing for the next-generation Electronic Health Record Way Ahead  project with a study of alternatives to be discussed this month, an official said today.

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Gov 2.0 vs. The Beast Of Bureaucracy

Andrew McAfee | Andrew McAfee's Blog | September 10, 2010

If Tim O’Reilly didn’t exist, the technology industry would have to invent him. He knows everybody, can explain anything to anyone, helps us understand where things are headed, and convenes diverse groups of people to think about talk about the big topics. Read More »

EHR Unity in Iraq

Joseph Conn | Modern Healthcare | September 10, 2010

U.S. Army Col. Drew Kosmowski said the Iraqis are fully onboard with plans to install VistA throughout their military and civilian healthcare systems. The advent of VistA could mean that disparate factions in Iraq might move one tiny step closer toward national unity.

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Q&A: Gunnar Hellekson on Open Source Adoption in Government

Molly Bernhart Walke | FierceGovernmentIT | September 8, 2010

Open source software received a high-profile vote of confidence when WhiteHouse.gov chose to use Drupal as its web content management system. Agencies also warmed to open source solutions when the Defense Department released a 2009 memo dispelling some common misconceptions around open source software.

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Civic Commons Code-Sharing Initiative Bids to Reduce Government IT Costs

Alex Howard | O'Reilly Radar | September 8, 2010

Around the United States, city governments have created a multitude of software. Unfortunately, most of the time the code from those projects is not shared between municipalities, which results in duplication of effort and redundant, static software.

Civic Commons, launched today at the Gov 2.0 Summit in Washington, is aimed squarely at helping city governments share the software they've developed. Civic Commons is the product of the District of Columbia's Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), Code for America andOpenPlans.

DOD Unhappy With Electronic Records Upgrade

Alice Lipowicz | Federal Computer Week | September 6, 2010

After spending $2 billion to upgrade its legacy electronic health record system, the Defense Department is preparing to conclude that the effort was only partially successful, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. DOD wants a new system, GAO said.

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Medical Monday: Unity Through Health Care

Drew Kosmowski | DOD News | September 6, 2010

As we are departing Iraq, the U.S. military will be training the Iraqi health care IT personnel in their Ministries of Defense and Health along with the Kurdish Ministry of Health to develop and implement the WorldVistA electronic medical record and management system throughout the country. This system is based on the U.S. Veterans Health Administration’s VistA system that has been improving health care for our veterans for over 30 years and is available by Freedom of Information Act as an open source system.