News Clips

Mobile Health IT Startup Could Help Autism Treatments, Education

Frank Vinluan | Med City News | March 13, 2011

The emerging health IT company AutismSphere is working to bring traditional paper methods into an electronic form with added features and functionality. AutismSphere’s software works on smart phones and mobile devices, and it is in a beta test in a small North Carolina school district.

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Sharing Principles, Policies, and Law, Not Just Code

Michelle Koeth | Civic Commons | March 11, 2011

At its core, the open source software strategy revolves around “harnessing the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process,” as set forth by the Open Source Initiative.

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Why Does Mike Huckabee Want Medicare to Waste Money?

Ezra Klein | The Washington Post | March 11, 2011

So at the moment, the Republican Party’s position is that Medicare and Medicaid cannot use studies measuring the effectiveness of different medical treatments when deciding what to cover or not cover. Read More »

Impact of caBIG on the European cancer community

R. Warden | Ecancer Medical Science, | March 10, 2011

The cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG) was launched in 2003 by the US National Cancer Institute with the aim of connecting research teams through the use of shared infrastructure and software to collect, analyse and share data. It was an ambitious project, and the issue it aimed to address was huge and far-reaching. Read More »

European Cancer Researchers Failing to Use Research Tools

Janet Fricker | Ecancer | March 10, 2011

A survey of European cancer researchers undertaken by the European Association for Cancer Research shows a widespread lack of use of caBIG research orientated tools in Europe. The cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid (caBIG) was launched in 2003 by the US National Cancer Institute with the aim of connecting research teams through the use of shared infrastructure and software to collect, anal Read More »

SMArt Prize for Patients, Physicians, and Researchers

Aneesh Chopra | The White House | March 10, 2011

This week a research team at Children’s Hospital of Boston and Harvard Medical School launched a prize to encourage innovative app developers to build new products and services that benefit patients and providers. Read More »

First Do No Harm

Marshall Allen | Washington Monthly | March 10, 2011

Last year there wasn’t a single fatal airline accident in the developed world. So why is the U.S. health care system still accidently killing hundreds of thousands? The answer is a lack of transparency. Twelve years ago, the Institute of Medicine issued a landmark report showing that medical errors in U.S. hospitals kill up to 98,000 Americans a year. In 2000, another estimate, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which included fatalities resulting from unnecessary surgery, hospital-acquired infections, and other instances of harmful medical practice, put the total annual death toll at 250,000. By that figure, contact with the U.S. health care system was the third leading cause of death in the United States, just behind all heart disease and all cancer.

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Boston Researchers Develop Health App Interoperability Platform

Press Release | Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School | March 10, 2011

According to ModernHealthcare.Com, federally funded researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School have released a healthcare interoperability platform and interface "to support a flexible health information technology environment and promote innovation."

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Military Open Source Community Growing

Kane McLean | SoftwareTechNews | March 10, 2011

In industry and the technology community at large many consider open source to be somewhat of a social movement centered around the free exchange of technological ideas; however across the DoD, where pragmatism so common in the Information Technology (IT) landscape, open source software (OSS) is often simply the best solution to the military’s technology challenges.

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Creating Shared Value

Will Schroeder | Kitware Blog | March 9, 2011

Well it looks like Kitware is on the leading edge again, this time for our business practices. Read More »

VA Trying to Shake Off IT problems, CIO Says

Henry Kenyon | Government Computer News | March 9, 2011

Two years later, Baker said at a recent industry event, the [Department of Veterans Affairs] has made progress.

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Revealing America's Deadliest Hospitals

Steve Benen | Washington Monthly | March 9, 2011

Twelve years ago, the Institute of Medicine issued a landmark report showing that medical errors in U.S hospitals kill up to 98,000 Americans a year. People responded to the alarm. Task forces were convened. Congressional investigations launched. Op-eds written. Yet as hard as it may be to believe, American medicine is, if anything, even more dangerous today. In this groundbreaking Washington Monthly article, investigative journalist Marshall Allen documents how contact with the U.S. health care system has become a leading cause of death in the United States and proposes solutions.

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Experts Believe Open Source is More Secure for Health Sector

Matthew Finnegan | TechEye.com | March 9, 2011

Health care IT systems should look to open source software (OSS) as an alternative that is more secure, as well as offering a cheaper option.  With local hospitals in UK soon to resemble Crimean-war era triage tents due to lack of funding it seems that the once impressive NHS could certainly now do with a few extra bob. Billions are spent on health care IT, though open source is looked at as a less viable option for a number of unfounded reasons.

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Federal Health and Technology Leaders on Open Standards Successes; Encouraging Health IT Entrepreneurs at HIMSS ’11 Venture Fair

Nate DiNiro | OpenAffairsTV | March 8, 2011

Proclaiming “today is the best time to be a healthcare entrepreneur in America”, U.S. Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Aneesh Chopra stood before a room of health IT and business leaders at the HIMSS 2011 Health IT Venture Fair & Strategic Partner Forum. Joining Chopra were Peter Levin, CIO of the Veterans Administration, and Farzad Mostashari, MD Deputy National Coordinator of the Office of National Coordinator, the office overseeing technical and policy aspects of US healthcare transformation efforts. The one-day venture forum preceded the HIMSS 2011 Annual Conference and focused on driving healthcare IT related innovation and economic development opportunities in the private sector based on opportunities presented in the HITECH and Affordable Care Acts.

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OpenClinica Launches New Website Feature Rich Motor On Drupal

Press Release | OpenClinica, Isover | March 8, 2011

When two innovative organizations who live and breathe open source go together to build a web site, great things. Open-source web and enterprise development OpenClinica Isover, the world’s most popular open source clinical trial, recently launched the new site OpenClinica. The two groups are very enthusiastic about the results. The new OpenClinica website is based on free open-source technologies, including the platform Drupal social publishing.

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