Latest Blog Posts

According to the latest E-Government survey by the United Nations, progress in online service delivery continues in most countries around the world. The U.N. E-Gov Survey 2012 found that many countries have put in place e-government initiatives and information and communication technologies (ICT) applications for the people to further enhance public sector efficiencies and streamline governance systems to support sustainable development. Among the e-government leaders, innovative technology solutions have gained special recognition as the means to revitalize lagging economic and social sectors. Read More »

Some naysayers from the drug industry are strenuously objecting to a Food & Drug Administration (FDA) proposal that could make more prescription-only drugs — such as those to treat asthma, migraines, high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol — more accessible without having to schedule a doctors appointment. “Medicine needs to take medical care to where the patients are,” Janet Woodcock, Director of FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, testified at a hearing in March. See Internal Medicine News. Read More »

QR Codes have been around for a while, but are just now really starting to take hold in healthcare. This is just one more short blog about this technology and its potential uses. Read More »

'Big Data' or 'Open Data' is garnering a lot of attention lately. This is a short followup to a previous blog entitled "Open Data & Healthcare" published last month.

The Office of Women's Health in the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) has provided access to the Women's Health Assessment Toolkit (WHAT) and associated 'open' database on their web site at http://www.healthstatus2020.com/owh/what/OWH_FIPS__search.asp

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Even as the Open Data and Open Access movements gain momentum, there are still many organizations fighting to reverse the process, e.g. for-profit publishing houses and certain not-for-profit education and research organizations that depend on fees charged to access the data to fund their operations. 

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Well guys, just as I warned, the eCollaboration Forum at the HIMSS12 conference has sold out. But don't despair, the folks at the Collaborative Health Consortium and HIMSS are providing a live webinar connection. In addition, Leonard Kish has made the full agenda available in an easy to use format in his blog. As we discussed in this news item, this Forum promises to be a watershed event for the HIMSS conferece as it presents the participants for the first time a clear and comprehensive of how platforms and ecosystems can work in the health IT field. 

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I always look forward to the summary of findings in the latest research reports about Health IT systems from Gartner, Forrester, Chilmark, and others. They do great work, but I have to be satisfied with the summaries because I just can't afford to buy the complete reports for $3000-$5000. Like so many individuals and organizations around the world, I have to rely on the release of free and 'open access' reports. Links to examples of these can be found on Open Health News (OHN).

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For a long time, the 'Open Access' movement has primarily campaigned for free and unrestricted access to scholarly information and research articles via the Internet. However, as the movement has continued to spread and pick up momentum, it has shifted its focus to also now include books, monographs, and other media.

Instead of publishers using copyright to restrict access and use of information, new open access licenses now allow authors to retain ownership of their works and grant the public the right to access and creatively reuse their works. New licences, such as those developed by Creative Commons, are now used by many open access publishers like the Public Library of Science (PLoS) and BioMed Central (BMC).

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Check out the most popular 'open source' or 'public domain' Health IT systems listed under the Resources Section on Open Health News (OHN), according to our readers. They are ranked by the number of people viewing the software product during 2011, starting with the most visited ones.

Ranking #1-10
• VistA    [VA VistA, OpenVistA, vxVistA, WorldVistA, OSEHRA, etc.]
• OSCAR
• Kitware    [ITK, VTK, Paraview, etc.]
• OpenEMR Read More »

“In my day, we didn't have virtual reality.  If a one-eyed razorback barbarian warrior was chasing you with an ax, you just had to hope you could outrun him.”  – Anonymous

Virtual reality (VR) is a multi-disciplinary field of computing technology, that emerged from research on three-dimensional interactive graphics and pilot/vehicle simulations in the 1960's and 1970's.  Back then, VR helmets were too heavy and cumbersome, computers were too slow, and touch/feedback systems were still in their infancy. However, technology has changed dramatically over the past 40 years. Read More »

We are in the process of transitioning from the Industrial Age of the past century into the Information Age of the 21st century.  Many acknowledge this but don't really grasped what it means. We are moving from the 'closed' protective systems that worked well in the Industrial Age to the new, more effective 'open' systems approach that is the hallmark of the Information Age. Read More »

One of most exciting presentations at the VistaEXPO 2011 conference was given by Robert Wentz, Hospital Administrator and CEO of Oroville Hospital, a regional hospital in the beautiful mountains of Northern California. Oroville Hospital has achieved a whole series of milestones in close partnership with the VistA community. These range from a full implementation of VistA in the hospital and most of its 20 clinics, to the achievement of full meaningful use certification.

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