News

MyOSCAR: An Open Source PHR System Being Used in Canada

It was announced today that patients of the Amari Medical Clinic and Integrated Health Centre in Surrey, British Columbia, have also gone live with MyOSCAR.  Patients can now have their most important and up-to-date test results, appointments, and healthcare stats integrated with their smart phone, laptop or tablet. Read More »

Open Source EHR Systems Implemented Across Oklahoma and Beyond

Slowly but surely, the installation and use of 'open source' electronic health record (EHR) systems have spread across Oklahoma 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 Oklahoma. Read More »

MaineHealth Facing Financial Debacle due to Proprietary EHR Install

The scenario: A sophisticated medical center health system begins to roll out an expensive proprietary EHR and shortly thereafter sustains an operating loss, leaving no choice but to put the implementation on hold. The operating loss is attributed to “unintended financial consequences” directly related to buying a very expensive EHR system. This is exactly the situation at MaineHealth, who selected Epic. Read More »

ONC Releases "Governance Framework for Trusted Electronic Health Information Exchange"

The recently released "Governance Framework for Trusted Electronic Health Information Exchange" by the  Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology’s (ONC) provides guiding principles on health information exchange (HIE) governance. The framework was developed as an alternative to the abandoned pursuit by ONC of a more formal, centralized governance structure for the U.S. Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN). Read More »

For Hospitals on the Edge, Health IT is the Tipping Point

Without question, massive health IT expense and the predominant proprietary IT model are threats to a hospital or health system’s financial viability, to its solvency. We’re seeing some examples even now. Michigan’s Henry Ford Health System recently reported a 15 percent decrease in net income as a result of uncompensated care and $36 million spent on a proprietary EHR system. According to health system CEO Nancy Schlichting, “We knew that 2012 and 2013 would not be easy years for the system because of the Epic costs.” Read More »

Emerging GIS Map of Healthcare Sites Using VistA EHR Systems

Open Health News has been building a database of all healthcare sites that have installed or are using any of the variants of the open source VistA Electronic Health Record (EHR) System, e.g. VA VistA, Medsphere OpenVistA, vxVistA, WorldVistA, RPMS, etc.  Using the growing database, OHNews has created a GIS map of the sites. There are still about 400+ sites yet to be added from India, Jordan, Mexico, the USA, and other countries. The emerging GIS Map of healthcare facilities that have installed or are using the VistA System is quite impressive.  Just a quick look at the USA shows that the family of VistA EHR systems is becoming the de facto national solution for federal, state, and local community hospitals and clinics. Read More »

Open Source EHR Systems Spreading Across Hawaii and the Pacific Rim

Slowly but surely, the installation and use of 'open source' electronic health record (EHR) systems continue to spread across Hawaii and the Pacific Rim, e.g. VistA, RPMS, OpenMRS, OpenEMR. Read More »

Government Agencies at all levels starting to use OpenStreetMap

There is a growing interest by the U.S. government in OpenStreetMap. The free availability of the rapidly maturing OpenStreetMap data and software makes this GIS mapping solution a more attractive option for the public sector than ever before, given the steep  cuts in federal and local government budgets. Read More »

KPMG Healthcare Report, Open Data & Consumer Comparison Shopping

KPMG’s recently released report "Something to Teach, Something to Learn"  revealed that while nearly all healthcare leaders accept that the way the industry works will change over the next five years, only a quarter of them are preparing to overhaul their business models. Read More »

OpenEMR & Ophthalmologist's Meaningful Use Attestation

Check out the "2013 Ophthalmologist's Meaningful Use Attestation" that was recently posted on the OpenEMR site. Understand how OpenEMR generates and tracks the data that you will need for attestation and where this information can be found. OpenEMR is one of the most popular 'open source' electronic medical record (EMR) and practice management (PM) systems on the market today. Read More »