News Clips
Open-Source Project to Help Foil BioTerrorists
A software package designed to minimize the potential risks of synthetic biology for the nation's defense and security is now available to the gene synthesis industry and synthetic biology community in an open-source format. Virginia Tech has licensed GenoTHREAT, a software tool that helps detect the use of synthetic DNA as bioterrorism agents. Developed as an open-source project by a team led by Jean Peccoud, associate professor at Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech, it is being released using the Apache License Version 2.0 to ensure broad accessibility.
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Connect Is Only One Goal of New Group
Several key leaders of a federally funded software-development project to create a common connection to the proposed nationwide health information network have formed a not-for-profit organization, the Alemic Foundation, to help carry that work forward.
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Proprietary vs. Open Source VA and DoD Health IT – Again
I was quoted in Bob Brewin’s today, Wisconsin reps try to derail VA/Defense open source health records system. This is an age-old story with DHCP and VistA, and it goes back even farther to Ted O’Neill’s early HEW funding of medical informatics research.
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Wisconsin Reps Try to Derail VA/Defense Open Source Health Records System
Five members of the Wisconsin congressional delegation asked the Veterans Affairs and Defense departments to consider using a single commercial system for their new electronic health records, a move that could benefit one of the state's largest employers, software company Epic Systems Corp. VA said it plans to stick with the open source approach it announced last month, but experts say the lawmakers' query could potentially delay the new system.
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Direct Project Gathers Steam, Finalizes Protocol
More than 60 healthcare and health IT organizations, including state-based and private sector health information exchanges, leading IT vendors, and several leading integrated delivery systems, are supporting or plan to support the Direct Project, a national standardized protocol for secure clinical messaging. Read More »
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mHealth: A Potential Tool for Health Care Delivery in India
This 9-page document...describes mHealth as "the application of emerging mobile communications and network technologies for health care systems. It involves the use of mobile computing, medical sensors, and communications technologies for health care." Read More »
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Army Unable to Create, Distribute the High-level Mobile Apps They Want
Apps for the Army has not delivered game-changing mobile applications for warfighters, Army officials told an industry audience March 17. Read More »
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Group will expand on ONC's Connect tools for exchange
Two former senior managers for the Connect gateway program in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT have started a foundation that will expand on the program's open source technology for health information exchange.
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eMocha: Android Data Collection for mHealth
Using mobiles for data collection is increasingly common, particularly in the area of mobile health and with a focus on community health workers.eMOCHA is a program using a smartphone Android application for storing and transmitting data easily.
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JAMIA: EMRs can improve quality of care in resource-limited countries
Clinical summaries with computer-generated reminders significantly improved clinician compliance with CD4 testing guidelines in the resource-limited setting of sub-Saharan Africa, according to research published in the March 2011 edition of Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA).
Free Software Builds on Federal HIE Initiative
Two leaders of the federally-funded CONNECT initiative to develop open source, downloadable health information exchange software now head a new foundation created to take the lead in promoting and expanding use of the technology. From the beginning, the government's plan was that a private sector organization would eventually take over management of CONNECT so the initiative could be more open to all participants in addition to federal agencies, but that hasn't happened until now. David Riley, president of The Alembic Foundation in Falls Church, Va., and Vanessa Manchester, COO, served as top staff for CONNECT in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
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Continua-CABA Partnership Pushes Connected Home Agenda
Continua Health Alliance, an organization of 240-plus technology companies that are developing personal connected health solutions, has struck a "liaison agreement" with the Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA). The liaison agreement will allow both organizations to benefit from CABA's collaborative research study, entitled "Aging in the Connected Home." The study will examine and determine potential home product, service and business opportunities based on the needs and expectations of the senior consumer market.
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Will Open Government Make Canada’s Health Agencies More Transparent
On Mar. 18, 2011, the Harper government in Canada announced its “Open Government” strategy. Although it appears to have been borrowed from President Barack Obama’s 'Open Government' directive, the piecemeal and toothless approach adopted in Canada falls short of the openness that has become the default position of all government departments in the United States. To follow the US example, openness in health information would require directing Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada first to be part of the approach and then to develop and report on how they will concretely achieve more “open government.”
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Announcing the Alembic Foundation: An Initiative for Better Health Data Sharing and Personal Data Management
The Alembic Foundation today announced its incorporation as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) to design and build Open Source technologies that empower citizens so they can understand, participate in and help guide the services-driven, networked information economy of the 21st century. The Alembic Foundation will define and build technology projects aimed at the difficult challenges inherent in managing personal and private data by organizations of all sizes on behalf of individuals, in a way that empowers those individuals.
Kundra: TechStat Needs $60 Million
A planned expansion of Office of Management and Budget "TechStat" meetings requires $60 million in congressional appropriations, Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra told a House panel March 17. Read More »
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