Latest News

OSEHRA Launches Code Repository & Certification Process

The Open Source Electronic Health Record Agent (OSEHRA), a non-profit foundation recently created to continue the development of the VA's VistA software using an open source collaborative development model, announced today the launching of its Code Repository and Software Quality Certification Process.  The establishment of this repository and certification process is a major step towards providing the tools that will enable users, developers, and researchers to engage with and advance electronic health record technology.

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'Open' Health Education & Training Solutions

The use of 'open source' software to deliver global health education and training solutions to health care provider organizations and medical schools is an important trend to watch. The number of open source and/or public domain health education and training software solutions currently available or under development has grown to be quite substantial.

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Number of Open Source Users Continue to Climb

According to a recent article in eWEEK Europe, their readers have given a resounding thumbs-up to open source software. In a poll they conducted, nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of the respondents use open source to some extent, with fifty percent of them using it in major production systems or wherever possible. Read More »

Capsite Survey Reports PACS/RIS Purchases to Climb

CapSite has announced the release of their 2011 study of Radiology Information Systems (RIS) in the U.S.  One of the highlights reported in the study is that 22% of U.S. hospitals plan to purchase a new Radiology Information System (RIS).  At Open Health News, we always encourage healthcare provider organizations to make sure they check out and consider open source alternatives in addition to more costly commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products. Read More »

Open Health Software Continues Exponential Growth, Breaks 1,500 Mark

Open source software in the healthcare field continues its exponential growth according to a report just released by Black Duck Software. According to Black Duck, a total of 294 new healthcare-related open source projects emerged in 2010, a 31% increase over the previous year. Projects for 3-D medical imaging, data management and clinical trials dominated new projects in the Black Duck® KnowledgeBase™, which counts more than 1,500 OSS projects with a health care focus.

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VistA 'Custodial Agent' Site Goes Live

After a long and suspenseful wait for the VistA community, the web site for VistA's 'Custodial Agent' effort went live this morning. Little information has been released by the VA or the 'Custodial Agent' team since the contract award was made so this is the first time the community gets a chance to see what the 'Custodial Agent' team has been working on.

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VISTA Expo 2011: Organizers Issue Call for Papers

The much anticipated VISTAExpo & Symposium 2011 conference has just issued a call for papers as well as trainers for their educational tracks and tutorial sessions. VISTAExpo is a four-day conference for activists and members of the VistA ecosystem, current users as well as potential adopters. It will be held from November 17-20 in Redmond, Washington. Papers and presentations are due by September 15. The conference organizers are looking for presenters on topics related to one of their four tracks as well as experienced VistA trainers to give tutorials for a large number of VistA “newbies” and potential users who are expected to attend. VISTAExpo is being organized primarily by the VISTA Expertise Network.

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Ohio LinuxFest 2011 Features Medical Track

Ohio LinuxFest, one of the largest and best attended Linux and Open Source conferences in the U.S., will feature a Medical Track for the first time this year. The track will present a whole range of major developments in the open health community. Ohio LinuxFest (OLF) is an annual grassroots conference for the  Open Source community. Organized and run by volunteers, it will be held this year from September 9-11 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio. The conference includes an expo area for companies and open source software organizations to set up booths.

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OpenEMR 4.1 Achieves Full 'Meaningful Use' Certification

After more than a year of upgrades and enhancements and months of testing at the ICSA Labs EHR Certification Program, OpenEMR version 4.1 received full 'meaningful use' certification for ambulatory care settings on Friday, August 19. This means that the widely-used open source Electronic Medical Records (EMR) is now certified to meet all ambulatory care requirements. OpenEMR had previously received only more limited modular certification. OpenEMR is not just a fully featured open source EMR; it also comes with multiple other open source components and enhancements including integrated practice management, electronic billing, prescription writing, document management, and a patient portal. With well over 3,000 downloads a month, OpenEMR is one of the most popular open source EMR solutions.

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Health IT Systems & 'Open' Cloud Computing

Over the next decade, many health IT systems are going to take advantage of 'Cloud Computing' technology.  Just as many of health IT systems are now incorporating open source software into their architecture, 'open' cloud computing solutions will also begin to be adopted by many public and private sector organizations. This will be especially true of those health care organizations pursuing and/or implementing application service provider (ASP) type solutions. Read More »