COSI 'Open' Health

Many common health problems can be prevented or alleviated with a healthy diet and good nutrition. For help, consider using some of the growing number of high quality, free open source and/or low cost  Diet & Nutrition software products now readily available to you. Read More »

Grid computing provides the ability to perform higher throughput computing by taking advantage of many networked computers to form the equivalent of a virtual 'super computer'. Grid computing utilizes the unused capacity of many separate computers connected by a network to solve large-scale computational problems. With grid computing, organizations can collaborate and pool both internal and trusted external computer resources to tackle projects that require an extremely large capacity of computing power.

Read More »

...In other words, self care is thriving. Using a PC, laptop, or smartphone patients can now access a host of healthcare information and services online from anywhere they might be. Using any one of these devices, they have ready access to online health information about symptoms, drugs, treatment options, healthcare facilities, and much more. In addition to PHR systems, mobile apps tailored to your particular health situation or wellness objectives abound. Free open source software tools exist to help predict longevity, assess susceptibility to strokes or heart attack. In addition to health educational materials, there are now health egames that make learning more enjoyable for patients of all ages. Prescription refills can be done online and the medication will be delivered to your home. New self care, self education, self examination, and self treatment are emerging in ever greater frequency...

Read More »

As reported in a recent article in the online Fierce Health IT magazine, "Financial issues for a software company could result in medical procedures going unscheduled and needy patients going without beds at a hospital across the pond, providing a cautionary tale for U.S. hospitals about the importance of vendor selection." There are some real risks to be considered when choosing an electronic health record (EHR) system for your organization. Read More »

Introduction

According to Dr. Susan Hamer, the Director of Nursing, Midwifery & Allied Health professionals at NHS, implementing new health information technology (IT) systems often has a huge impact on clinical practices and in the past managers had underestimated the effort and expense needed to support nurses through this change. "While there is a small group of nurses that is taking on the informatics challenge, there are too few of them at the moment," she said. "Nurses need to take a better grip of the health informatics agenda, both to secure the technologies that the profession needs to improve operations  while also enhancing quality of care." Read More »

The key health information technologies (IT) to be deployed by the health care provider organizations in the U.S. over the next decade include standards-based Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems interconnected via Health Information Exchange (HIE) networks. Medical imaging will be key component of these systems. In addition, Personal Health Record (PHR) systems, mobile health apps (mHealth), and social health networks will be widely used by the end of the decade.

Then where do we go? What new health IT solutions will we see rolling out in the 2020-2040 timeframe. We ought to be talking more about this. The following are some of the emerging health IT solutions that I predict will be widely deployed over the next several decades. Read More »

Here's a short blog I just felt compelled to write.  According to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONCHIT) web site, there are 1,049 EHR Products Now Certified.  You can see this news item on the ONCHIT home page - http://healthit.hhs.gov/portal/server.pt/ Read More »

Back in 2007, after Hurricane Katrina, I co-authored a story entitled "Murder by EHR" to showcase the benefits of having electronic health records (EHR), especially in major disaster situations. With the arrival of Hurricane Irene, I decided to reprint the story here for your entertainment and information. It's a bit longer than my normal blogs. Read More »

I've been keeping an eye on DNA computing, or biocomputers, for quite some time now. These are the computer systems of the future - a form of computing which use DNA, biochemistry and molecular biology, instead of the traditional silicon-based computer technologies.

Read More »

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans to purchase a commercial electronic health record (EHR) system to support medical care and public health services for detainees of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The system will be deployed at 22 locations across the country. Read More »