The federal government has identified technology components in the U.S. supply chain that have been embedded with security flaws, the top U.S. civilian cybersecurity official said Thursday. Read More »

Renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs has called the mobile phone “the single most transformative technology for development.” The mobile phone is now set to be the information portal for health workers, many of whom work in remote areas where access to reference materials is limited. Read More »

From Brazil to France to Australia to India, new laws and platforms are giving citizens new means to ask for, demand or simply create greater government transparency. The open data movement has truly gone global, with 19 international open data websites live around the globe. This week, the world will see another open government platform go live in Kenya. Read More »

The number of operational health information exchanges has more than doubled to 228 since last year, and of those, private exchanges have increased more rapidly than public organizations for sharing information, according to researcher KLAS. Read More »

While negotiating with Republicans, President Obama has made it clear that he is not willing to cut services to Medicare patients. But he will consider trimming payments to nursing homes. Wait a minute—doesn’t that mean fewer services for nursing home patients? Not necessarily... Read More »

It was only a matter of time. Eventually, Medicare would refuse to continue paying drug-makers whatever they choose to charge.  Now, it appears that this is happening.  (Kudos to Igor Volksky over at Think Progress Health.) Read More »

Hospitals that are participating in the Medicare Electronic Health Record Incentive Program have the option to report their clinical quality measures in 2012 through an electronic reporting pilot...The electronic reporting pilot is one of the provisions of a proposed rule that CMS released July 1 that updates payment policies and payment rates for outpatient care to Medicare beneficiaries in hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers. Read More »

Technology, data, and innovative health apps will be the focus Thursday, June 9, when the Department of Health and Human Services and the Institute of Medicine hold the second annual Health Data Initiative Forum.  Read More »

The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to expand mobile use by clinicians and employees beyond BlackBerrys to include devices such as Android, iPhones and iPad models. Read More »

Without current data on health workers, countries can’t ensure that the right provider is in the right place with the right skills. As Bitsang recalls, there was no centralized information system for all health workers across the public and private sectors, and various departments used different databases. Read More »