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Other People's Code – FOSS vs Proprietary Health IT
FOSS hold great things for health care if the decision makers embrace it. To do that they need a clear picture of how FOSS will save the money. The folks advertising a Free EHR are doing themselves a disservice by cheapening themselves and giving the FOSS FUDers an opportunity to exploit the stigma. And FOSS is not Free, only royalty free to use. That distinction needs to made between “free” and “costs less”. That's why I am writing this article.
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OSEHRA Is On the Move
OSEHRA is on the Move. As we clear the hurdles of establishing Governance structure, clarifying Vision, implementing work Processes, and employing our IT Infrastructure and Development Tools, we simultaneously are preparing ourselves for the long run with the Open Source community. April 2012 was a busy month. We began the month by convening our first meeting of the OSEHRA Board of Directors; General (Retired) James Peake, Mr. Michael O’Neill and Dr. John Halamka. This inaugural Board meeting marks our official emergence as an independent organization with its own governing board. We will publish the meeting minutes on our web-site.
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Upcoming "Health Datapalooza" to Promote Innovation
This June, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) will host the 3rd Annual Health Data Initiative Forum (or the 2012 Health Datapalooza) at the nation's capital. The event, keynoted by national CTO Todd Park, “will feature keynote addresses, a Data & Apps Expo, demonstrations of cutting-edge apps, hands-on data deep dives, and thought-provoking panel discussions". Read More »
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Federal Agencies Must Pursue an IT 'Shared Services' Strategy
The recently released Federal Information Technology Shared Services Strategy provides organizations in the Executive Branch of the U.S. federal government with policy guidance on the full range and lifecycle of intra- and inter-agency information technology (IT) shared services, which enable mission, administrative, and infrastructure-related IT functions. "This strategy is part of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 25-Point Implementation Plan to Reform Federal IT Management, which seeks to increase return on investment, eliminate waste and duplication, and improve the effectiveness of IT solutions. Commonly referred to as 'Shared-First', this strategy requires agencies to use a shared approach to IT service delivery." Read More »
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'Open Source' Robotics Field Continues Rapid Growth
Robots are increasingly being used in the field of healthcare. So the announcement earlier this month about the formation of the Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF) is of some interest to those of us working in this field. OSRF is an independent, non-profit organization founded by members of the global robotics community. Their mission is to support the development, distribution, and adoption of 'open source' software for use in robotics research, education, and product development. Read More »
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Hesperian Health Guides Releases Open Copyright Apps
Hesperian Health Guides released the Android version of their Safe Pregnancy and Childbirth app Friday, completing the new suite of free digital tools Hesperian made available in late February. These new digital tools, which were developed by Hesperian in partnership with The UnaMesa Association, are designed to provide community health workers worldwide with quick medical references and source content for training. The new digital tools suite consists of the Pregnancy and Safe Childbirth Application, a searchable HealthWiki, and an online image library. Read More »
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Max Healthcare is 1st hospital in India to receive 'Stage 6' recognition from HIMSS
As reported in Business Wire India and IT News Online, Max Healthcare has become the first hospital in India and only the sixth in Asia to achieve “Stage 6” on the EMR adoption model from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), indicating that a significant portion of patient records are now electronic with minimal usage of paper charts. They rely heavily on the use of open source health IT solutions, e.g. VistA, Mirth.
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The Charity Engine and key 'open' grid computing resources
Have you check out the Charity Engine. Based on University of California (UC) Berkeley's famous free and open source BOINC software, the Charity Engine grid is hired to science and industry as the equivalent of a super-cheap 'supercomputer'. Charity Engine takes enormous, expensive computing jobs and chops them into thousands of small pieces, each simple enough for a home PC to work on as a background task. Once each PC has finished its part of the puzzle, it sends back the correct answer and earns some money for charity. Read More »
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Open Source Passion at POSSCON: Scott McNealy Headlines SC Event
I just returned from POSSCON (Palmetto Open Source Conference) in Columbia, South Carolina. For a regional open source event, attendance at 700 was pretty sweet (and so was the Southern hospitality!). Conference attendees range from large commercial organizations to universities to students. While there are many developer events on the “left coast” there are few in the southeast (which, BTW, is home to large developer shops including Red Hat, SAS Institute, Bank of America, etc.), and this is a good one. It’s unique, with session tracks covering educational topics, big picture ideas/themes, demos (SugarCRM, Alfresco, SkySQL, etc.) and more.
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Siaya District Hospital in Kenya Goes Live With OpenEMR
The Siaya District Hospital in Kenya has just implemented the 'open source' electronic medical record (EMR) system called OpenEMR with the help of Medigrail, a small privately held California-based health information technology (IT) company. According to a recent update posted on the OpenEMR wiki, an implementation team composed of Medigrail and Siaya District Hospital staff worked closely together on this project for over six months to ensure its success. Initial installation of the computer servers, network technology, and the OpenEMR software system began back in late 2011. The system finally went live in early April 2012.