News Clips

Merger of TranSmart, i2b2 Aims to Provide Informatics Boost to Precision Medicine Efforts

Neil Versel | Genomics Web | April 28, 2017

As genomic tools continue to make their way from the research lab into clinical practice, the recently announced merger between the TranSmart Foundation and the Informatics for Integrating Biology and the Bedside (i2b2) aims to provide researchers and clinicians with an open-source resource that could benefit precision medicine efforts. Earlier this month, the two organizations announced their plans to combine into a single foundation focused on providing open-source biomedical software and databases for precision medicine...

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HHS Secretary Equates Health IT to ‘Burden’ for Doctors

Billy Mitchell | FedScoop | April 27, 2017

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price advocated Thursday for reducing the burden placed upon physicians and health care providers by the health technology that is otherwise meant to improve care for patients. Speaking at his first Health Datapalooza as the head of HHS, Price said the proliferation of health IT is something that “can have remarkably challenging and sometimes destructive consequences”...

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New Eclipse IoT Open Testbeds to Drive Industry Adoption of Open Source and Open Standards in IoT

Press Release | Eclipse IoT Working Group | April 27, 2017

The Apache Software Foundation Announces Apache® cTAKES™ v4.0

Press Release | The Apache Software Foundation | April 25, 2017

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the all-volunteer developers, stewards, and incubators of more than 350 Open Source projects and initiatives, announced today the availability of Apache® cTAKES™ v4.0, the latest version of the Open Source natural language processing system for information extraction from health-related free-text. Apache cTAKES (clinical Text Analysis Knowledge Extraction System) is a natural-language processing based information extraction platform for health-related text that identifies signals important for the biomedical domain including types of clinical named entities mapped to various biomedical terminologies/ontologies such as the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) ...

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Partners HealthCare and Persistent Systems to Team on New Industrywide Digital Platform for Clinical Care

Press Release | Persistent Systems, Partners HealthCare | April 25, 2017

Persistent Systems and Partners HealthCare, founded by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, announced today a strategic collaboration to develop a new industry-wide open-source platform with the goal of bringing digital transformation to clinical care. Persistent will help the digital transformation of clinical care at Partners and, together with Partners, develop an open-source platform to lower the barriers for knowledge exchange across health care providers and enable a new generation of decision support apps in the clinical environment...

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Open-Source EdgeX Foundry Seeks to Standardize Internet of Things

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols | ZDNet | April 24, 2017

Security is the Internet of Things' (IoT) Achilles heel. One reason that's so is there is a lack of common IoT development standards. The Linux Foundation, along with 50 companies, is addressing this by building a common open-framework for IoT edge computing and an ecosystem of interoperable components under a new open-source consortium: The EdgeX Foundry. The new initiative has a common goal: The simplification and standardization of Industrial IoT edge computing, while still allowing room for vendors to add their own value-add features...

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U.S. Coast Guard Seeks Ideas for Its Own EHR System

Samantha Ehlinger | Fed Scoop | April 24, 2017

The U.S. Coast Guard is looking for a solution to digitize its electronic health records that would be more interoperable with Defense and Veterans Affairs’ systems. The service is looking for a “computerized, integrated Electronic Health Record Acquisition” that would be more interoperable with both departments’ systems, according to a Request for Information published Sunday. The solution would replace the agency’s “manual paper health records,” and would need to protect personally identifiable information and personal health information, according to the RFI...

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Pfizer Unveils ATLAS®, An Interactive, User-Friendly Website That Provides Global Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance Data Across 60 Countries

Press Release | Pfizer Inc. | April 21, 2017

Pfizer Inc. today announced the launch of the company’s Antimicrobial Testing Leadership and Surveillance (ATLAS) website, which is designed to provide physicians and the global health community with easy access to critical data on the efficacy of various antibiotic treatments and emerging resistance patterns across more than 60 countries. Understanding evolving bacterial resistance patterns is a key element in managing the rise of antimicrobial resistance. To that end, ATLAS can not only help physicians select the most appropriate treatment choices for their patients, but also enable global health authorities to develop data-driven antimicrobial resistance mitigation strategies...

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MuleSoft Joins Linux Foundation Open API Initiative to Accelerate Innovation in API Specifications

Press Release | MuleSoft | April 20, 2017

MuleSoft, provider of the leading platform for building application networks, today announced that MuleSoft has joined the Open API Initiative (OAI) guided by the Linux Foundation. In addition, MuleSoft CTO Uri Sarid, creator of the open RESTful API Modeling Language (RAML) for API specification, will participate in the Technical Developer Committee to help steer OAI technologies. OAI's ability to drive a connected global economy with APIs founded on top of an OpenAPI Specification (OAS) will be enhanced by the addition of MuleSoft...

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TransCelerate Selects Veeva Vault SiteExchange

Press Release | Veeva Systems, TransCelerate BioPharma Inc. | April 19, 2017

Veeva Systems and TransCelerate BioPharma Inc., a non-profit organization with membership comprised of global biopharmaceutical companies, today announced TransCelerate selected Veeva Vault SiteExchange for the Shared Investigator Platform (SIP), a platform that facilitates investigative site collaboration with multiple clinical trial sponsors...

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The Story of How Fake Sugar Got Approved is Scary As Hell

Kristin Wartman Lawless | Tonic | April 19, 2017

The common-sense wisdom about the most widespread artificial sweetener on the market, aspartame, is that it's perfectly safe. The substance laces more than 6,000 products and is added to diet versions of Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, and Dr. Pepper. It is also sold under the brand names NutraSweet and Equal. It represents a multi-billion-dollar industry. Popular pieces across the internet in recent years have declared that concerns about aspartame are just a bunch of hype. A pediatrician and writer for The New York Times defends aspartame and says he regularly gives it to his kids. Vox dismisses concerns about the sweetener and includes a video about how safe the stuff is...

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HARMAN and IBM Watson Internet of Things Introduce Cognitive Rooms that Bring Connected Experiences to the Consumer

Press Release | IBM | April 19, 2017

HARMAN Professional Solutions and IBM Watson Internet of Things (IoT) today unveiled Voice-Enabled Cognitive Rooms. Using IBM's Watson artificial intelligence (AI) technology and HARMAN AKG microphones, JBL speakers and AMX AV control and switching systems, the companies bring highly connected experiences to medical facilities, corporate offices, hotels, cruise ships and other hospitality environments...

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Cognitive Medical Systems and Motive Medical Intelligence Part of VA $22 Million Clinical Decision Support Initiative

Press Release | Cognitive Medical Systems | April 19, 2017

Cognitive Medical Systems, a specialist in standards-based Clinical Decision Support (CDS) software and healthcare IT infrastructure, and Motive Medical Intelligence, a leading provider of evidence-based clinical workflows, today announced that it will be a part of the U.S. Veterans Administration’s $22 million initiative. The companies will work with prime contractor B3 Group on the one-year agreement to help the VA’s Office of Knowledge Based Systems (KBS) implement Clinical Decision Support (CDS) technology within electronic health records (EHRs)...

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Kitware and Newmont Guide Mining with Virtual Reality

Press Release | Kitware, Newmont | April 19, 2017

Through a combined effort, Kitware and Newmont Mining Corporation (Newmont) visualized ongoing expansion of the Tanami mine in virtual reality (VR). For the work, Kitware added functionality to ParaView, its open-source software solution for high-performance computing (HPC)...

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IMS MAXIMS Electronic Patient Record Selected for NHS Clinical and Digital Information Systems Framework

Press Release | IMS MAXIMS, NHS London Procurement Partnership | April 18, 2017

NHS hospitals across the country will be able to respond to paperless and personalised care ambitions, by procuring IMS MAXIMS electronic patient record (EPR) technology through a new clinical technology Framework. The pioneering technology specialist has been awarded a place on the new Clinical & Digital Information Systems Framework Agreement (CDIS), launched by NHS London Procurement Partnership (LPP)...

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