I spent some time recently on a call regarding yet another government agency's interest in interoperability in Healthcare IT. It seems, with the advent of meaningful use, interconnected healthcare IT applications and devices, that Interoperability has become the new religion. Read More »

From the outset, the first installment in the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (GAFFTA) Summer of Smart hackathon had a different feel...I’ve witnessed the power of mixing people with diverse skillsets and experiences, and this was once again reinforced, both within my particular SoS team, and at the hackathon as a whole. Check out the projects, covered by GAFFTA. Read More »

In a new review of medical home processes by small to medium-size physician practices, the use of electronic medical record (EMR) systems by those practices appeared to be on the low side when compared with larger practices or those owned by hospitals or health plans, according to a new study in the current Health Affairs. Read More »

Staggering rates of healthcare-acquired infections (HAI) require hospitals and health systems to implement health IT, as well as transparency, according to a GE white paper released today. As the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S., HAIs affect one in 20 patients, that is, 1.7 million inpatients each year, according to the report. Read More »

More than 3.5 million people die each year as the result of water-related disease according to the World Health Organization. Water Canary, a new device unveiled this week at TED Global in Edinburgh, Scotland, hopes to put a dent in this number by providing real-time information on potential outbreaks of disease- infected water. Read More »

By the end of 2010, more than 400 million works had been licensed with Creative Commons licenses. That's 400 million musical compositions, news items, academic manuscripts, artworks, blueprints, presentations, photographs, books, blog posts, and videos whose owners believed traditional copyright restrictions didn't allow their creations to properly circulate, grow, and flourish. Read More »

If you walk the hallways--that is, if you're escorted through the hallways--of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in Bethesda, Md., you'll see some remarkable maps. Read More »

Can doctors and other health care providers be the driving force in achieving cost-effective health care? Read More »

There's a popular story circulating suggesting that America suffers from a shortage of medical care and the doctors who provide it. Read More »

The Dept of Vets Affairs runs VistA, which is one of the most effective, and widely-used electronic health record (EHR) systems in the world. Read More »