News Clips
Turning VistA Into a "Real" Open Source Project
The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is exploring the creation of a "custodial agent" to govern the development of VistA, its popular open source electronic health record (EHR) platform. VistA exists as open source code because it is in the public domain, and a successful ecosystem of VistA-based projects and companies has grown up around it offering EHR services, but without the governance and infrastructure of a "real" open source project.
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The VA Is Thinking About an Open Source EHR
Fedscoop published a blog from VA CTO, Peter Levin and Lauren Bailey, on the topic of Open Source EHRs. Having followed and participated in this long journey, it is rewarding to see the clear progression over the last one and half years towards what will ultimately be a massive, perhaps the largest ever, open source project. The progression and acceleration in the VA's, largely Roger Baker's thinking on open source is evident. According to them, it is clear the VA is using all outlets to prepare, explain and educate the public on its thinking about open source and modernization.
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Kitware Wins NASA Contract to Develop Open-Source Visualization Software
If you love ParaView and VTK, then you should definitely look at this newest press release from Kitware which discusses their recent SBIR win to develop some new features for massive parallelization, for use by NASA. Read More »
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Producing Public Good Through Innovative Technology
We continue our series by looking at how collaborations between governments and new technologies will influence business and the community of the future...How does the new technology influence the life sciences? Is any of this relevant? Yes, on several levels.
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Proving Value of Open Government Falls to Agencies
Agency officials are faced with the burden of proving President Barack Obama’s Open Government Initiative is worth the effort, according to a panel of experts.
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Running Open Technology Development Projects
This article lays out the basic framework for running an open technology development (OTD) project for the military. The first section describes how to establish an OTD program once a project proposal has been accepted. The next sections discuss establishing a technical infrastructure for collaboration, communication issues, technical management/technical criteria, and continuous delivery. Much more information on how to do this from an open source software (OSS) project perspective can be found in subsequent chapters.
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Thinking About an Open Source Electronic Health Record
Thirty years ago, when clinicians at VA first started building the software components for a “high tech” electronic health record, they stood at the vanguard of patient-centered care. At that time folks weren’t thinking much about plug-and-play modularization, market-based communities of interest, sleek development environments, or interoperable systems. Thanks to their persistence, creativity, and dedication, today Veterans enjoy among the highest standards of health care, and the VA has become a model and benchmark for safety, accessibility, and therapeutic outcomes. This is especially true of their VistA electronic health record (EHR).
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Open Source Biotechnology Platforms For Global Health And Development: Two Case Studies
Using a case study approach, the authors of this journal article examine the potential of open source biotechnology platforms for global health and development. Two initiatives relying on collaborative online platforms are analyzed: projects by the nonprofit institute Cambia and India’s Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) project.
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Defense & Energy Ranked Top Departments in Open Source Use
The U.S. Defense and Energy departments have been deemed leading agencies when it comes to transparency and the use of open source technologies, reveals a survey by Open Source For America (OSFA) examining which federal departments were making the most of open-source technologies. Read More »
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As HP Targets the Cloud, Open Source Players Could Be Acquisition Targets
Hewlett-Packard (HP) has a relatively new CEO, Leo Apotheker, who laid out HP's corporate strategy this week, and made clear that the company won't rely on legacy software and strategies going forward. Instead, HP is staking its future on cloud computing. At HP's summit for analysts and journalists, Apotheker made clear that he will focus the company on the cloud and on analytics, which adds fuel to recent conjencture that HP may also have increasing relationships with players focused on open source in the cloud, possibly including acquisitions of open source cloud players.
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Use of Health Information Technology Among Racial and Ethnic Underserved Communities
This article examines the potential role of health IT in addressing healthcare disparities among racial and ethnic minority populations. An overview of health IT utilization among healthcare providers notes certain characteristics that may disproportionately affect minority populations.
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Berwick Political Saga is a Tragic Attack on Better Healthcare
President Barack Obama has made plenty of mistakes in his first two-plus years in office, but none may be more serious for the future of America than his decision to install Donald M. Berwick, M.D., as a recess appointment to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in July 2010. Read More »
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Healthcare Arrives at SXSW
SXSW is the arts-and-music-and-technology cutting-edge hipster showcase. This year, the medical industry found a place at the table. There was a discussion on mobile health in emerging countries as well as discussions around open health data, connecting and managing health data, and health disparities among many others.
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Defense Leads Open Source Push in Government as Politicians Fail
A new report being released by the Center for Strategic & International Studies, a strategic think tank headed by former Sen. Sam Nunn, shows that outside the Department of Defense (DoD) open source is mainly being stymied. Apparently, when politicians get involved, money from proprietary software vendors talks loudest.
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Todd Park, CTO of Health and Human Services, On Improving Healthcare with Open Data
Todd Park, CTO of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), joined an enthusiastic audience at SXSW to talk about the power of open data and innovation to improve health. His role is not to run technology for HHS, but he serves an an entrepreneur in resident to start "virtual startups" within HHS to improve the health of Americans. HHS wants to create an environment that helps markets and the public transform healthcare. As part of the Recovery Act, HHS is implementing Medicare/Medicaid incentive payments to physicians and hospitals for meaningful use of electronic health records. To get the money, you can't just use EHRs. You have to use them to actually improve care.
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