News

OHNews Weekly Summary - 6/1/2013

June 1, 2013  -  The following is a brief summary of some of the hot news items, news clips, feature stories, and blogs posted on Open Health News (OHNews) over the past week. Read More »

OHNews Weekly Summary - 5/25/2013

May 25, 2013  -  See some of the major hot news items, news clips, and blogs posted on Open Health News (OHNews) over the past week. [1st Weekly Summary] Read More »

MyVeHU Virtual Campus: Enrollment Hits 31,000 and Growing

Was that a typo?  No it's a fact.  Earlier this month, MyVeHU Campus enrollment hit 31,000, and the numbers are still climbing. You might be asking yourself, "Why would so many people be interested in online, virtual training?" MyVeHU Campus is designed to provide the very best learning on VA’s award winning VistA electronic health record (EHR) system. Read More »

VistA, AHLTA, CHCS: An Evolving Alternative Roadmap to the Future

The obstacles to continue moving U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in a common direction with regard to their clinical IT systems are fairly well-known. Having made that statement, it may therefore seem strange that this blog suggests that a conceptually simple technical approach may have the potential to untie the Gordian knot that has defeated many previous efforts. The proposed approach is not some yet-to-be-developed technology that exists only on Powerpoint slides. In fact, the proposed approach is based on technology that has already been validated by the-powers-that-be – at taxpayer expense – and the official conclusion in the official report on file at the DoD(1) states unambiguously and explicitly that the technology works as claimed is scalable, and can handle very large M/Caché systems.

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Case Study: MD Anderson Successfully Implements Tools to Migrate Clinical Research Data from MUMPS to Oracle

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has successfully completed the initial stages of a major migration of their MUMPS-based Clinical Trials Databases to Oracle as one of the critical stages in MD Anderson’s multiyear eResearch project to modernize management of Clinical Trials. The MD Anderson Cancer Center chose CAV Systems' Evolve Suite to carry out the migration. The institutions have produced a case study outlining the background and results of this extraordinary project. Read More »

From Reactive to Preventative Health Care – a Role for Open Map Standards

Over the past decade, health authorities have used geospatial technologies to help respond to influenza outbreaks, plan responses to public health risks of extreme weather conditions, implement breast cancer programs, track West Nile virus, and much more. Wider use of OGC [Open Geospatial Consortium] standards by the health mapping community would make more data and processing resources discoverable, assessable and accessible. On May 31 the OGC will hold a free public webinar to review the charter for an OGC Health Domain Working Group. Read More »

Current State of Android Mobile Apps and mHealth Projects

According to data just released by Black Duck Software, development of new Android mobile projects have expanded by no less than 96% each year since 2007. See their chart showing cumulative growth for Android versus Apple iOS projects from 2007-2012 at Read More »

VistA and Related 'Open Source' EHR Systems in use Across California

The installation and use of 'open source' electronic health record (EHR) systems have continued to spread across California and many other states across the U.S.  See the map of healthcare facilities running some variant of the open source VistA electronic health record (EHR) system in California. We keep learning of more sites from members at the WorldVistA meeting taking place this week at George Mason University. Read More »

Top 5 Misconceptions About Open Source In Government Programs

On March 15, 2013, ComputerWeekly.com, the “leading provider of news, analysis, opinion, information and services for the UK IT community” published an article by Bryan Glick entitled: Government mandates 'preference' for open source. The article focuses on the release of the UK’s new Government Service Design Manual, which, from April 2013, will provide governing standards for the online services developed by the UK’s government for public consumption... Read More »

VistA System Implementations Continue Across India

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi is the premier and largest of the public funded hospital in India with a capacity of over 2000 inpatient beds. After burning its fingers with expensive proprietary electronic medical record (EMR) software in 1980’s, in 2009 the Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre (JPNATC) within AIIMS decided to take a baby step towards computerization using the 'open source' VistA system. Read More »