News Clips

Can Open Source Create Better Prosthetics?

Jason Hibbets | OpenSource.com | December 14, 2009

I started reading about the Open Prosthetics Project whose  goal is to produce useful innovations in the field of prosthetics. The project team freely shares  the designs they come up with to make progress in prosthetics. The old way of creating prosthetics wasn't working. Patenting the designs and waiting for lackluster insurance coverage or government-funded research to make advancements haven't worked in the past. Using an open source approach changes the game. Sharing the design with more users and other designers is creating momentum. 

Open Sourcers Aim Selves at US Gov

Gavin Clarke | Channel Register | December 4, 2009

Advocates who helped shape a major US government department's policy paper on using open-source in IT projects are stepping up their lobby.  Open Source for America plans to push for clear statements on the rules around using open source in government IT across a number of federal departments next year.

Read More »

Kern Medical Center Goes Paperless

Christine Dinh | TurnTo23 | December 4, 2009

When you think of hospitals and doctors, you often think of paper charts and records. But that won't be the case anymore for Kern Medical Center.

Friday, KMC announced its implementation of a new electronic record keeping system. It may not seem like a big deal, but it's expected to make a world of a difference to the hospital staff and patients.

Currently, KMC processes about 400 charts per day. Each chart can contain up to hundreds of pages in medical records. But all that would be condensed into the electronic system and accessible at the click of a mouse.

Kern Medical Center Selects OpenVista System for Clinical Transformation and Meaningful Use

Press Release | Medsphere, Kern Medical Center | December 4, 2009

Medsphere Systems Corporation, the leading provider of open-source healthcare enterprise solutions, today announced that Kern Medical Center of Bakersfield, Calif., will fully and meaningfully deploy the OpenVista® electronic health record (EHR) by the end of 2010. This significant health IT initiative, which will eventually touch every KMC clinician and patient, is designed to help KMC achieve dramatic and swift clinical transformation and maximize health IT financial incentives available through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Read More »

VA, Kaiser testing the exchange of electronic health records

Bob Brewin | NextGov | December 1, 2009

The Veterans Affairs Department and Kaiser Permanente launched a pilot project in November in the San Diego area to test how clinicians in both organizations can exchange electronic health records over a national network that the federal government is creating to share medical information. Read More »

No More Executive Bonuses!

Henry Mintzberg | Wall Street Journal | November 30, 2009

These days, it seems, there is no shortage of recommendations for fixing the way bonuses are paid to executives at big public companies. Well, I have my own recommendation: Scrap the whole thing. Read More »

Celebrating the art of the possible

Ken Banks | Build it Kenny, and they will come… | November 19, 2009

Tonight in Santa Clara, California, several thousand people will be standing on the stage with me as I collect a Tech Award for FrontlineSMS. It’s been an incredible four years – the last two in particular – and it’s amazing to think how far we’ve all come. Read More »

Jenny Aker On Mobile Phones And Economic Development In Africa

Staff Writer | CDDRL News | November 9, 2009

Jenny Aker an Assistant Professor in the Economics Department and Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, provided an overview of the welfare impacts of mobile technologies and how current research is testing our assumptions about the benefits of mobile phones for individuals in developing countries. Read More »

Academic Pirates Trade Science Articles

Mimi Szeto | The Varsity | November 5, 2009

Those in the medical field may be illegally distributing academic journal articles, a recent report reveals. Read More »

Revisiting the Achievements of the Veterans Health Administration

Megan McArdle | The Atlantic | November 5, 2009

Back in 2005, Phillip Longman wrote an article in the Washington Monthly, touting the strides the Veterans Administration had made in improving quality.  Since then, it has become the model for a fair number of reformers, who frequently cite its ability to control costs and coordinate care as proof that we should move towards such a system nationwide. Read More »

Defense: Open Source Software is More Secure Than Commercial Code

Jill R. Aitoro | NextGov | November 5, 2009

Open source software, freely available program code that the public can download and modify, which many agencies avoid because they view it as a security risk, is often more secure than the alternatives that are commercially developed, a top Defense Department official said on Thursday.

Grading the Public Options That Already Exist

Sabrina Shankman | Pro Publica | October 28, 2009

Pundits and politicians from both sides of the fence have been hollering themselves blue about a potential public health care option. Instead of relying on private insurers, the government would insure people itself...Two of the three health care reform bills in Congress have a public option. What might a public option look like in practice? One way to find out is to look at what's already out there. Read More »

Whitehouse.gov Could Be a Springboard for Open Source for America

Savio Rodriguez | InfoWorld | October 28, 2009

Like many of you, I awoke Monday to read that whitehouse.gov was now running on open source products, including Drupal, Red Hat Linux, Apache web server, MySQL, and Apache Solr.

Read More »

DOD Says Yes To More Open Source

Serdar Yegulalp | InformationWeek | October 28, 2009

Open source in the government and military isn't a new thing; governance is one of open source's biggest target markets, so to speak. It's still all the more heartening to hear the Department of Defense come out strongly in favor of open source, and to recommend using more of it whenever possible.

The recommendation comes in the form of a memorandum (PDF) issued back on October 16th by David M. Wennergren, deputy CIO for the DoD. Wennergren notes that the "positive aspects of OSS [open source software]" should be considered when performing research for its use in the DoD. Read More »

DoD: Open Source as Good as Proprietary Software

John Fontana | Network World | October 27, 2009

The Department of Defense Tuesday clarified its stance on open source software saying it is equal to commercial software in almost all cases and by law should be considered by the agency when making technology purchase decisions.

The memo was not a policy statement but instead a clarification and guidance on the use of open source software (OSS) within the agency. It was issued by David Wennergren, deputy CIO of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). Read More »