News

Summaries of open source, health care, or health IT news and information from various sources on the web selected by Open Health News (OHNews) staff. Links are provided to the original news or information source, e.g. news article, web site, journal,blog, video, etc.

See the following -

$99 Supercomputer Parallella Now Fully Open Source Hardware

Saurav Modak | Muktware | July 3, 2013

While there is a open source alternative for almost every useful closed program out there, open source hardware are however rare. Parallella [...] had promised earlier that they will make their hardware open source. The campaign is now over and now it seems that they have fulfilled their promise. Read More »

'Baddest' Innovation Fellow Goes To GitHub

Frank Konkel | FCW | March 7, 2013

He’s been called the "baddest of the badass innovators" by federal CTO Todd Park, and after a successful six months as a Presidential Innovation fellow, Ben Balter is taking a job with the open software collaboration platform GitHub. Read More »

'Big Chicken': The Medical Mystery That Traced Back To Slaughterhouse Workers

Maryn McKenna | NPR | September 10, 2017

Reimert Ravenholt, a physician at the Seattle Department of Public Health, was puzzled. It was the winter of 1956, and for weeks now, local doctors had been calling him, describing blue-collar men coming into their offices with hot, red rashes and swollen boils running up their arms. The men were feverish and in so much pain they had to stay home from work, sometimes for weeks...

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'Blue Button' Technology May Give You More Control Of Your Health Information

Bill Toland | Siox City Journal | June 28, 2013

Get a group of tech-savvy physicians and electronic medical records experts in a room, ask them about the way forward, and the subject of the Blue Button is sure to come up. Read More »

'Copyright Week' Protest Channels Aaron Swartz's Activist Legacy

Dell Cameron | The Daily Dot | January 14, 2014

To the many who view themselves as netizens, citizens of the Internet, the loss of Aaron Swartz was a devastating moment in history. One year after his death, the memory of the 26-year-old activist is galvanizing the efforts of organizers who share his passion for the freedom of information. Read More »

'Get the Insurance Companies the Hell Out' of Healthcare System

Jon Queally | Common Dreams | October 25, 2016

Right-wingers like Charles Krauthammer don't "think anybody should buy it"—and too many Democrats actually don't want to talk about it—but that doesn't mean advocates for a single-payer or 'Medicare for All' healthcare system aren't responding to news about rising insurance premiums for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with renewed demands. Just weeks away from national elections, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) made financial and political news late Monday by announcing the average premiums for plans under the ACA (aka Obamacare) will rise significantly for many consumers in 2017...

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'Ginger' Price joins Open Health News

We have some great news for our readers. Virginia ("Ginger") Price has joined Open Health News (OHNews) as a partner and senior editor. Ginger is one of the most respected and well recognized health IT expets in the US. She has over 30 years experience in designing, building, implementing, and managing complex standards-based Health IT solutions, including driving adoption strategies to increase clinician and person centered use of those solutions. Read More »

'Help Us Build Kick-ass Tablets': Mozilla Asks Devs To Get Involved With Firefox OS Slates

Liam Tung | ZDNet | January 24, 2014

If you're a developer who's good at spotting missing features, and have an itch to try out Mozilla's new tablets, it's time join the foundation's contributor program. Read More »

'Hidden' Med School Curriculum Hurts Empathetic Care

Alicia Caramenico | FierceHealthcare | June 10, 2013

With April research showing medical interns spend very little time directly caring for patients, medical education is getting more bad press. Read More »

'Huge Growth Potential For Open Source Hospital Information System'

Gijs Hillenius | European Commission Joinup | April 26, 2013

GNU Health, an free software hospital information system, medical record system and health information system, is rapidly becoming popular in hospitals around the world, says one of its developers, Sebastian Marro. "This project has the potential to grow really large." Read More »

'I Lost 10 Relatives To Ebola'

Staff Writer | BBC News | April 3, 2014

Ebola fever has killed at least 86 people in Guinea in recent weeks and another six in Liberia. Firmin Bogon, who lives in Gueckedou near the borders with Liberia and Sierra Leone, told BBC Afrique how he lost his sister, his wife, his stepmother and other loved ones to the virus. Read More »

'Mobile Midwife’ Taps Technology To Improve Health Care

Matikas Santos | INQUIRER.net | April 19, 2013

Fermina Flores, 60, has been working as a midwife in the municipality of Gerona, Tarlac for the past 34 years, covering four barangays (villages) with a combined population of around 8,000. Read More »

'Moral Bankruptcy of Capitalism': UK’s Top Public Doctor Shames Western Society Over Ebola

Staff Writer | RT News | August 3, 2014

Western countries should tackle drugs firms’ “scandalous” reluctance to invest in research into the virus which has already killed over 700 people in West Africa, the UK’s top public doctor said, adding, “They’d find a cure if Ebola came to London.” The pharmaceutical industry are reluctant to invest in research to produce treatments and vaccines “because the numbers involved are, in their terms, so small and don't justify the investment,” said Professor John Ashton, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, an independent body for specialists in public health in the United Kingdom. Read More »

'Most challenging' deadly disease outbreak: WHO speaks out on Ebola dangers

Staff Writer | RT.com | April 9, 2014

West Africa is seeing the “most challenging” outbreak of Ebola virus since the disease was discovered 40 years ago. It comes as the death toll reaches over 100, the World Health Organization reported. "This is one of the most challenging Ebola outbreaks we have ever faced," Keiji Fukuda, assistant director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) told a news briefing. Read More »

'Net Neutrality' Ruling Could Be Costly For Consumers, Advocates Say

Chris O'Brien, Salvador Rodriguez and Jim Puzzanghera | Los Angeles Times | January 14, 2014

An appeals court throws out the FCC's 'net neutrality' rules on Internet traffic. The ruling could raise Internet service fees and stifle innovation, some say. Read More »