News Clips
India to Make Some Traditional Knowledge Free Access
Indian traditional knowledge could soon help researchers develop new drugs for diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis, because of plans to make some of this knowledge publicly available.The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) has been in development since 2001, with more than 200 researchers compiling and translating traditional knowledge based on some 150 ancient texts and documenting around 200,000 medicines. It aims to legitimise traditional knowledge and protect it from biopiracy and patent claims by providing information to patent offices for cross-checking of new applications.
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NHS To Be Switched Over to Open Source
In a stunning U-turn the government has today announced that the NHS will be switched en masse to a new NHS-wide open source clinical system in just 12-months time.On the stroke of midnight, 1 April, 2012, all NHS trusts, primary care trusts and GP practices will have to simultaneously switch off all of their current systems to a new open source clinical system, codenamed NHS Mastadon.
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VA seeks partners for open source electronic health records system
The Veterans Affairs Department has released a draft request for proposals to develop the next generation of its next-generation electronic health record system based on open source software.
"As we work to ensure that we provide veterans with the best in health care, modernization of VistA is absolutely critical," VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said in a statement, referring to the Veterans Integrated System Technology Architecture, the agency's EHR system. "This move towards open source welcomes private sector partners to work with us to improve VistA, and is an important part of our strategy to ensure that VA clinicians have the best tools possible, and that veterans receive the best health care possible."
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VA Begins Process to Create Open Source Electronic Health Record
Formally Announces Request for Proposal & Implementation Schedule
WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) today released a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) aimed at forming an Open Source community around its ground-breaking VistA (Veterans Integrated System Technology Architecture) electronic health record (EHR) system. When award is made under a planned RFP for a custodial agent, VA will commit to deploy the Open Source version of VistA to all of its facilities, and will contribute all non-security essential modifications to the product it makes or pays for directly to the Open Source custodian. VA will also commit to participate in Open Source VistA with other public and private sector participants.
Special Report: When the Drugs Don't Work
Welcome to a world where the drugs don't work...for decades scientists have managed to develop new medicines to stay at least one step ahead of an ever-mutating enemy.
Now, though, we may be running out of road. MRSA alone is estimated to kill around 19,000 people every year in the United States -- far more than HIV and AIDS -- and a similar number in Europe. Other drug-resistant superbugs are spreading. Cases of often fatal "extensively drug resistant" tuberculosis have mushroomed over the past few years. A new wave of "super superbugs" with a mutation called NDM 1, which first emerged in India, has now turned up all over the world, from Britain to New Zealand.
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OSCON Adds Healthcare Track to Upcoming Conference
Organizers for the O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) announced plans to include a new healthcare track at this year's conference, slated to be held in Portland in July.
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WHO Experts To Analyse R&D Financing, Focus On Poor Country Diseases
The World Health Organization expert working group tasked with studying proposals on financing and coordinating research and development for diseases that disproportionately affect developing countries will meet next week.
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AGIMO [Releases] Open-Source Software Draft
The Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) has outed the draft of its open-source software guide, following a change to its policy forcing agencies to consider free and open software as seriously as proprietary offerings.
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VA, DOD agree on joint platform for e-health records, Shinseki says
The Veterans Affairs and Defense departments have agreed to create a joint common platform for electronic medical records as they confront the need to modernize their respective digital systems, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said at a Senate hearing today.
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Shinseki and Gates clinch deal on common health record
Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said Thursday he and Defense Secretary Robert Gates agreed on March 17 that their departments would develop a 'common' electronic health record (EHR) system. A former high-ranking federal health information technology official, who declined to be identified, said the agreement ultimately could save the two departments billions of dollars in development and maintenance costs.
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White House Releases IT Dashboard as Open Source Code
The White House has released the software code for its IT Dashboard and TechStat toolkit. The initiative was coordinated through Civic Commons, a code-sharing project incubated within Code for America that helps governments share technology for the public good, with support from OpenPlans.
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Improving Healthcare in Zambia with CouchDB
A new healthcare project in Zambia is trying to integrate supervisors, clinics, and community healthcare workers (CHW) into a system that can improve patient service and provide more data about the effectiveness of care. Because of the technical challenges in an extreme rural setting, unique solutions are required. CouchDB is a document-oriented database released under an Apache open source license. According to Cory Zue, chief technology officer of Dimagi, CouchDB went a long way toward keeping a consistent set of records under extreme circumstances.
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ICT Strategy Promises To Save Millions
A new strategy, which the government says will save millions that are currently wasted on public sector ICT, was published by the Cabinet Office today. Read More »
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NASA Hosts Its First Open Source Summit
NASA on March 29 and 30 hosted its first-ever Open Source Summit here at the Ames Research Center at the former Naval Air Station (NAS) Moffett Field, now known as the Moffett Federal Airfield. This is generally the destination for Air Force One and Air Force Two when the president and vice president visit the San Francisco Bay Area. Read More »
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UK ICT Strategy Offers "Level Playing Field" to FOSS Again
The UK Government's Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude MP, has unveiled the coalition's ICT (Information and communications technology) strategy. The new strategy includes plans to "create a level playing field for open source software."
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