The National Association for Trusted Exchange (NATE) today welcomed its newest member, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). By joining NATE and participating in the NATE Blue Button for Consumers (NBB4C) Trust Bundle, VA is demonstrating its commitment to enabling its Veterans to send their health data to the consumer-facing application (CFA) of their choice. 
As we move from fee for service to alternative payment models/value-based purchasing we will increasingly measure our progress based on outcomes and total medical expense. HealthKit was an enabler that led Beth Israel Deaconess to create BIDMC@Home, an iPhone and iPad app that uploads internet of things (blood pressure cuff, glucometer, scale, activity, sleep data etc.) to our electronic health record. CareKit, announced by Apple this week, takes us one step further on our wellness-focused journey.
At this year’s HIMSS conference, interoperability was again one of the hottest topics of discussion. Interoperability was even a featured showcase at the HIMSS Interoperability Showcase. Yet the lack of interoperability in HealthIT remains. "HealthIT is not unique in its interoperability woes and other industries, including the automotive industry, are still struggling with associated safety issues."
It has been six years since the HITECH Act passed, yet most Americans seeking medical care are still unable to obtain their full medical records for a variety of reasons whether the hospital will not release them or proprietary EHR system vendors will not allow hospitals, let alone patients, direct access. One Healthcare 2.0 leader, CORAnet Solutions, has developed a tool that finally allows patients access to their complete medical records. This new breakthrough technology enables patients to take control of their personal medical data with CORAnet’s Personal Health Information Exchange (PHIE).
CORAnetTM Solutions is a rapidly growing Global Healthcare IT company, providing innovative solutions to a more cost-effective personal health records management. We are a dedicated team of Healthcare and Health IT professionals with a shared vision to facilitate health empowerment. As the creators of the Mobile, Interoperable, Personal Health Information Exchange (PHIE) we are singularly focused on our mission to provide a best of breed Mobile, interoperable and secure EHR support solution and thus become the solution of choice for mobile users looking to own, control and access their medical records anytime, anywhere while enabling healthcare practitioners to provide coordinated care to their clients.
Amida Technology Solutions, a Maryland-based open source software company, today announced the addition of former Governor Martin J. O’Malley as an Advisor. O’Malley joins distinguished public-sector leaders Michèle Flournoy, General John R. Allen, Sonal Shah, and Scott Gould in guiding Amida in the creation of software and services that will help NGOs, state and local governments, and private companies to solve their most complex data issues. 
Apple’s recent acquisition of health startup Gliimpse is the latest in a long series of strategic moves by the Cupertino, Calif.-based company to capture mindshare and market share in a healthcare industry increasingly reliant on data. News of the tech giant’s purchase of Gliimpse—a personal health record aggregator—did not come from Apple, which does not comment on its acquisitions or the strategy behind them. Reports of the acquisition first surfaced in Fast Company, a business magazine that covers the technology industry...
Humetrix, developer of the award-winning SOS QR emergency mobile platform, just received the 2016 FCC Chairman's Award for Advancements in Accessibility (AAA). SOS QR was recognized as an important tool to help individuals with disabilities lead independent lives, during a keynote address by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler at this week's M-Enabling Summit, in Washington, D.C. 
Cora Alisuag, the CEO of CORAnet Solutions, Inc. will speak on the importance of Mobile Personal Health Information Exchange (PHIE) technologies in providing patients and their caregivers with the critical information needed for their personal care and wellness during the 2015 OSEHRA Open Source Summit taking place in Bethesda, MD July 29 to 31st. Alisuag has been one of the key visionaries who proposed the idea of patients and their family members being able to obtain their personal health records. This concept was embraced by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) under the name of the Blue Button initiative.
Mr. Nagpal argues the issue here is one of who controls patient data — is it the patients themselves or care providers and vendors? He says if patients control their data — choose who gets access to it and see who's doing what with it — many of the proposed barriers to interoperability would dissolve. "Being able to access our own information from across our care team in a joined up manner, and then being able to determine who can access that information and for what uses, I think of these as fundamental rights," Mr. Nagpal says. "Given these rights, each one of us can grant any member of our care team, including our friends and family, researchers and any innovator with an interesting solution, with access to our data under our control"
It has only been about two generations since traveling medicine shows were common forums for medical information. Phony research and medical claims were used to back up the sale of all kinds of dubious medicines. Potential patients had no real method to determine what was true or false, let alone know what their real medical issues were. Healthcare has come a long way since those times, but similar to the lack of knowing the compositions of past medical concoctions and what ailed them, today’s digital age patients still don’t know what is in their medical records. They need transparency, not secret hospital –vendor contracts and data blocking, like the practices being questioned by the New York Times. One patient, Regina Holliday resorts to using art to bring awareness to the lack of patient’s access to their own medical records.
With “Smart HIE”, ZibdyHealth will provide patient medical record interoperability in a secure environment, transfer data ownership to the patient and provide users with a rich suite of tools to manage their health in a very simple to use application.