Past Events

The case for open source healthcare information systems: An overview of healthcare information system licencing and a look to the future.

Healthcare information systems have the potential to bring improvements in patient safety, quality of patient care and efficiency. The sale of health care information systems is an emerging multibillion pound industry and as policy makers, health care professionals and patients, we have a responsibility to maximise the return on investment. Alternative licensing and software development models, the role of standards and the role of communities are analysed and it is argued that open source licensing is needed to promote safer, more effective health care information systems.

Presentation will be given by Dr Carl Reynolds at the International Digital Laboratory, University of Warwick, England. It will take place on August 24th August at 4pm. Dr. Reynolds is a physician, health informatician and clinical advisor with an interest in change management enabled by health care IT. Read More »

The GECO (#jiscgeco or #jiscgeo) project invites you to spend a day exploring Open Source, Geo & Health through a programme of speakers and hands on activities.

In keeping with Open Source we are keen that you bring your own ideas into the day we welcome contributions from anyone interested in the connections between health and geography.

If you have an idea or would like to present your own work on health and open geo then please indicate this when you book your place and/or email the GECO team ([email protected]).

Please let your colleagues, friends and contacts know about this free event which we hope will be a really valuable opportunity for discussion, exchange of ideas and hands-on activity. You can also follow tweets from the day via the hashtag #gecohealth.

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Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab to Host Code-A-Thon in Laurel, MD

You're invited to join us for the upcoming CONNECT Code-A-Thon taking place in Laurel, MD in August. As a participant, you'll be working with other health IT leaders as you contribute to the CONNECT solution and advance the nation's health IT agenda during this two-day event hosted by the Johns Hopkins University.

As part of the evolution of the CONNECT Code-A-Thons to address Community feedback, this event will begin with a plenary session. This session includes presentations from federal agencies about the latest developments in the needs of the federal community and their partners. It will also discuss the importance of Open Source in the government.

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The O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON 2011) to be held in Portland, Oregon, is offering a health care track for the second year in a row. We had a wonderful health care track last year (summarized in our report to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; I'll also post some links to videos, interviews, and blogs at the end of this article), and we're planning to build on our coverage of last year's topics as well as add some topics that got short shrift last year.

Topics that didn't receive as much coverage last year as [I think] they deserved, and that we hope to feature this year, include:

• Roles of standards in health record formats, and weaknesses that need to be addressed
• Communication with devices (ranging from ordinary cell phones to specialized medical devices) and their use to improve care
• Use of electronic records and clinical decision support outside the United States

Come join representatives from the private industry, government agencies, academic institutions, and non-profit organizations in the first of a series of innovative discussion forums sponsored by the HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response’s Fusion Cell.

The forums will help identify pioneering ways to move from open source information into actual public health response – so everyone is better informed, better prepared, and better able to respond fast to protect health and save lives.

Ultimately, the question is: how do we efficiently and effectively manage large volumes of internal and external disparate data sources necessary for situational awareness, rapid decision support, and discover new indicators and warnings of events of public health significance? Read More »