News Clips

caBIG - 5 Useful Online Biology Research Tools

Ryan McBride | Fierce Biotech IT | May 2, 2011

There are huge amounts of data from worldwide cancer research. So much, perhaps, that individual research sites would have a tough time managing it all on their own. With caBIG, however, there are plenty of ways to share and easily access such data without the burden of keeping it all in-house. Read More »

Open Source Biology

Lori Mehen | OpenSource.com | May 2, 2011

Could patent restrictions in biotech be compromising millions' health, safety, and standards of living when we should be benefiting from new diagnostic tests or improved medicines? Biotech information is rarely shared and certainly not in any optimal way. This needs to change.

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New Public-Private Community Aims to Help Build NHIN

Ken Terry | Fierce Health IT | May 2, 2011

This week, Alembic's Aurion Project will release the latest version of the CONNECT application, Aurion 4.0, and participants in the Aurion community will finalize a charter and a governance structure. In the long run, this project may have a considerable impact on the development of the NHIN.

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VA Health Care Is Good for Me and Would Be Good For You, Too

Robin Miller | Roblimo.com | May 1, 2011

The VA VistA system is so much better than any private medical records system I’ve experienced as a patient that it totally shows anyone who claims all important advances come from the profit motive is a liar. Read More »

Incentives for Open Source development

Ian Fore | National Cancer Institute | May 1, 2011

One balance that has to be achieved in open source development is that between the motivation of the individual developer and the organization in which they work. It's important that these don't become at odds with one another, it is possible to make sure they are aligned. Read More »

Open Source Projects of Relevance to caBIG and CBIIT

Ian Fore | National Cancer Institute | May 1, 2011

In connection with this working group Ken had raised the issue of our own use of/contribution to open source projects. Here is an ad hoc list of a few such projects. Read More »

Open Source Telemedicine

Press Release | Sana at MIT | May 1, 2011

Sana is a highly multidisciplinary volunteer-driven organization hosted at MIT comprised of students and working professionals in the fields of medicine, public health, engineering, and business. We have developed and implemented a free, open source, cell phone based telemedicine system that empowers frontline community health workers and general practitioners to provide expert care to patients with the support of remote specialists and doctors. Read More »

‘I've Been Called a Girl Geek'

Vijaysree Venkatraman | The Hindu | April 30, 2011

With her book Geek Nation just released, Angela Saini talks about India's aspirations to being a scientific superpower....[one example in her book] is that of Open Source Drug Discovery, a revolutionary project to collect research into tuberculosis from small-scale researchers across India, pool it on an open-access website and use this to come up with a possible cure...

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Get SMRT: Pacific Biosciences Unveils Software Suite with Commercial Launch

Kevin Davies | BioITWorld.com | April 29, 2011

Third-generation sequencing company Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) began commercial shipment of its PacBio RS single-molecule sequencer this week. The instrument has been in beta testing at 11 institutions in North America and elsewhere for the past year. A notable success was the recent sequencing and identification of the cholera strain sweeping Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake. Read More »

Chart of the Day: U.S. Outspends Developed World 141% in Health Care

Derek Thompson | The Atlantic | April 29, 2011

"The three most important health-care graphs in the world" on Ezra Klein's blog demonstrate in no subtle way the extraordinary costs of U.S. medicine. One of the commenters requests a look at health care spending compared to life expectancy. Read More »

Summary of Health Care Outcomes: Does Massachusetts Lead the Nation?

Andy Oram | O'Reilly Radar | April 29, 2011

Because Massachusetts anticipated much of the US health care reform effort, this report gives us a glimpse of what can happen in the country as a whole when the provisions of the federal law fully take effect.

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Clinovo Introduces Its Enhancements to Its Open Source EDC Platform at OpenClinica Global Conference 2011

Press Release | Clinovo, OpenClinica Global Conference | April 29, 2011

Clinovo proves its expertise with open source clinical EDC development by presenting its enhancements to the OpenClinica platform, #1 open source EDC platform worldwide. Clinovo shares its EDC enhancements and best practices during the OpenClinica Global Conference taking place in Boston May 8th and May 9th 2011. “Improving eCRF layout on OpenClinica” presented by Ale Gicqueau, President & CEO at Clinovo, describes customizations that enable to use HTML tags, not officially supported by the OpenClinica platform, and control the size of data input fields. By applying these, programmers can easily improve the look of clinical trial entry forms.

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Feds Help Rural Docs With Electronic Records

John Pulley | NextGov | April 29, 2011

The federal government is offering a total of $12 million in one-time grants to help networks of rural health-care providers achieve "meaningful use" of electronic health record systems. Read More »

VA's Baker Says VA, DOD Digital Record Systems Will Morph into Joint System

Alice Lipowicz | Federal Computer Week | April 29, 2011

The Veterans Affairs and Defense departments’ approaches to modernizing their health record systems may be slightly different, but their goals are aligned in developing a joint electronic health record (EHR) system, according to Roger Baker, assistant secretary for information and technology for the VA.

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VA, DOD to Incorporate Open Source in EHR

Mary Mosquera | HealthcareIT News | April 29, 2011

The secretaries of the Veterans Affairs and Defense Departments will meet May 2 to determine their next steps toward developing a single electronic health record for the two agencies, according a senior VA official. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki and DOD Secretary Robert Gates agreed in March on a commonn technical arcitecture, data and services and exchange standards for the joint system. Read More »