The Veterans Affairs Department has released a draft request for proposals to develop the next generation of its next-generation electronic health record system based on open source software.

"As we work to ensure that we provide veterans with the best in health care, modernization of VistA is absolutely critical," VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said in a statement, referring to the Veterans Integrated System Technology Architecture, the agency's EHR system. "This move towards open source welcomes private sector partners to work with us to improve VistA, and is an important part of our strategy to ensure that VA clinicians have the best tools possible, and that veterans receive the best health care possible."

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Gartner published a report in early February which revealed that more than half of the organizations surveyed have adopted Open Source Software(OSS) as part of their IT strategy but only one-third of the responding organizations had a formal OSS policy in place. Gartner OSS surveys from the past 5 years reveals that OSS has increased from less than 10 percent of responding organization's portfolio to more than the expected 30 percent within the next 18 months. The perceived value of adopting OSS as part of IT strategy has also changed over the years from purely TCO benefits to benefits accumulated from flexibility, increased innovation, shorter development times and faster procurement processes.

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The world is observing World TB (Tuberculosis) Day, to commemorate the day in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced the discovery of the cause of Tuberculosis, the bacillus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This day is meant to focus attention on TB and generate public awareness that TB still today remains a global epidemic causing the deaths of several million people each year, mostly in developing countries. TB is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide as over 1.7 million people die due to TB every year which amounts to one death every 20 seconds.

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Implementing electronic health records (EHRs) for all 633,000 physicians and 5708 hospitals in the United States is a daunting task, and one that is being nudged forward by Team Obama's $19 billion stimulus plan earmarked to help health care providers to switch to EHRs. But a March New England Journal of Medicine study by Jonathan Oberlander, PhD, and John Halamka, MD, MS, showed that only 1.5% of hospital records are fully computerized, and only 7.6% of hospitals have a basic EHR system.

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The UK Government's Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude MP, has unveiled the coalition's ICT (Information and communications technology) strategy. The new strategy includes plans to "create a level playing field for open source software."

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New procurement guidance from the UK government has defined open standards as having "intellectual property made irrevocably available on a royalty free basis." The document, which has been published by the Cabinet Office, applies to all government departments and says that, when purchasing software, technology infrastructure, security or other goods and services, departments should "wherever possible deploy open standards."

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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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Last Sunday, economist Dick Thaler wrote an article in the New York Times highlighting the many ways innovators are using government data to create platforms, applications, and other useful tools that touch the lives of our friends and neighbors. Read More »

On 22 February 2011, the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination at the University of York launched PROSPERO, an international prospective register of systematic review protocols. The registry was developed to address the excessive duplication of systematic reviews, improve transparency and minimize reporting biases

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In the latest episode of White House White Board, U.S. Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra highlights costs savings in technology and its impact on government transparency.

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