News Clips

Senator Gillibrand Fights for Legislation to Proactively Provide NY Vets with Care Benefits

Editors | ABC 50 | May 26, 2011

As America honors our fallen heroes who have died defending our country this Memorial Day, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is introducing legislation to improve access to health care and other benefits for New York veterans.

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IT & Software News Recombinant, MAVERIC to develop GenISIS PBR Staff Writer

Press Release | Recombinant, MAVERIC | May 26, 2011

Recombinant Data, a provider of data warehousing and clinical intelligence solutions, has collaborated with the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)'s Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology Research and Information Center (MAVERIC), for the development of the Genomic Informatics System for Integrative Science (GenISIS) under VA's Million Veteran Program (MVP).

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Pentagon Plans to Consolidate Military Health Records

James Dao | New York Times | May 26, 2011

[The Defense Department and Department of Veterans Affairs] have agreed to develop a joint computerized system for health care records that could provide a single source of data on a veteran’s health from enlistment through death, officials said.

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Patient Safety Checklists Mandated by State Law

Karen Cheung | Fierce Healthcare | May 26, 2011

Patient safety checklists are now state law, as Nevada signed the Patient Protection Checklist bill (AB 280) into legislation yesterday.

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CONNECT Software to Get Fixes

Press Release | CGI Federal Inc., Red Hat | May 26, 2011

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology has awarded a contract to CGI Federal Inc. to continue development of the federally funded CONNECT downloadable health information exchange software. Read More »

Microsoft Cuts Asterisk Ties--What are the Open Source Skype Alternatives?

Ruth Suehle | opensource.com | May 26, 2011

Microsoft has ended its deal to let the open source Asterisk PBX system work with Skype as of July 26, perhaps due to the launch of its own competing service. Read More »

Joint Health Record Graphical Interface Contest

Bob Brewin | NextGov | May 26, 2011

One of the key components of the joint electronic health record planned by the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments is a graphical user interface, and I've picked up strong signals that the two departments have three likely candidates in pilot mode. Read More »

Is the Future Open? Ask a Fourteen-Year-Old.

Ruth Suehle | opensource.com | May 26, 2011

In a NY Times op-ed, David Hajdu posits that the spate of notable musicians all of the same age (turning 70 this year) is attributable to their turning 14 in the mid-1950s when rock 'n roll was just getting its start. "Fourteen is a formative age," his theory goes. What if that's not just for musicians? What about technology? And what does it mean for today's 14-year-olds? Read More »

Infant Deaths Reduced Through EMR Use

Janice Simmons | Fierce EMR | May 26, 2011

Even a 10 percent increase in the hospital use of electronic medical records could save 16 babies for every 100,000 live births in the U.S. And, making a complete national transition to EHRs could save an estimated 6,400 infants each year nationwide, according to a new study published in the Journal of Political Economy. Read More »

IG: VA Fails to Bill Insurers When It Should

Rick Maze | ArmyTimes | May 26, 2011

The Veterans Affairs Department is losing more than $110 million a year by failing to bill third-party insurance companies for medical care, according to an inspector general report. Read More »

OpenLogic Collaborates for Open Source Compliance

Sean Michael Kerner | Datamation | May 26, 2011

Maintaining open source license compliance in an enterprise development and production environment can sometimes be a complex task. That's where the Open Logic Exchange (OLEX) comes into play with a hosted Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution to the challenge of open source source license compliance. Read More »

U.S. Considers Open-Source Software for Cybersecurity

Jeremy Hsu | InnovationNewsDaily | May 26, 2011

Open-source software may not sound compatible with the idea of strong cybersecurity, but the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sees such software, which anyone can tinker with, as a possible tool for defending government networks from both online thieves and professional cyberspies. Read More »

IBM’s Watson: Becoming a Doctor with Data Analytics

Brett Stupakevich | Smart Data Collective | May 26, 2011

The supercomputer that beat human Jeopardy champions earlier this year is now as advanced as “a second year medical student,” according to Forbes.com tech blogger, Bruce Upbin (@bupbin). Read More »

HIE: The Evolution of an Idea

Jeff Rowe | Government Health IT | May 26, 2011

We’ve posted twice this week on matters related to ongoing efforts to build and sustain health information exchanges (HIEs). So it seems appropriate to round off the theme with this overview piece that looks at where HIE efforts have been, what they look like, and where they might be going. Read More »

Medical School: How the “Hidden Curriculum” Snuffs Out Compassion

Maggie Mahar | Health Beat | May 26, 2011

Dr.  Chris Johnson reflects on how and why, so many medical students seem to lose that compassion for others that is “innate in all of us,” and causes many students to choose the profession in the first place. Johnson writes: “We need to prevent medical training from driving [compassion] into the background, belittling it, or even snuffing it out.” Read More »