Latest Blog Posts

As we head towards the end of the year, the global 'open source' software movement continues to grow and strengthen, especially in the field of healthcare. Based on the number of hits by readers of Open Health News (OHNews) on links to our brief profiles of 'open source' Health IT systems, the following are their top choices of interest over the past year: Read More »

The following are a series of selected news articles, feature stories, and blogs about Business & 'Open Source' activities and solutions that have been posted on Open Health News (OHN) over the past couple of years. . Read More »

When looking to acquire a health IT system, the discussion often boils down to the question of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) versus Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) solutions.  The reality is that some form of Hybrid Open Source Software (HOSS) solution is probably what you should aim to acquire and implement. For example, in the healthcare arena there are a numerous great, high quality, and expensive COTS health IT solutions that you can acquire. If the software doesn't quite fit all your needs, you simply write the vendor a check to develop whatever else you need that they don't currently include in their product. The annual license and support contract also guarantees you will get the latest updates and needed fixes. Read More »

Like so many others, I wasn't about to read the entire Affordable Care Act (ACA) or the details of the HITECH Act. Nor was I going to pay much attention to the political blather about 'Obamacare' being pushed by biased commentators or politicians over the airwaves. I have simply been waiting to actually see how it would roll out and impact me and my family. Read More »

I have been following Gijs Hillenius for the past year on several social media and news sites. He is a journalist with over 25 years of experience and is currently the news editor of the Open Source Repository & Observatory (OSOR). The focus of many of his posts is on the use of open source and open standards by national, regional, and local governments across the European Union (EU). Read More »

The Open Source Electronic Health Record Agent (OSEHRA) Summit was held this past week in Bethesda, Maryland.  The focus was on the use of the VistA electronic health record (EHR) and other open source solutions in healthcare. Read More »

Apparently, we're coming up on the "8th Annual Health IT Week", September 16-20, 2013. That's great news – but it did surprise me. I've worked in the field of Health IT for almost 40 years and I just stumbled across Health IT Week. Read More »

The battle continues over the correct definitions of 'Free' and/or 'Open Source' Software (FOSS). For many readers who don't follow this issue closely, it's time to take another look at the subject.

According to the GNU organization and the Free Software Foundation (FSF),  'Free' Software is not about price – it's about liberty and freedom.. Read More »

I was recently reading a blog by Thomas Papagiannis on "Open Data and Financial Crisis", particularly with regards to cities.  It was a timely piece given the recent issue of Time Magazine on the bankruptcy of Detroit and a growing number of other cities across the U.S. Read More »

I finally got around to checking out Pinterest and seeing how it could be used for my business and professional interests. Check out my 'Open Health' Pinterest page http://pinterest.com/pjgroen/pins/ Read More »

The following are 10 of the more popular Hot News items posted on Open Health News (OHN) so far in 2013, based on the number of people who viewed these articles. Read More »