This mock pandemic killed 150 million people. Next time it might not be a drill
A novel virus, moderately contagious and moderately lethal, has surfaced and is spreading rapidly around the globe. Outbreaks first appear in Frankfurt, Germany, and Caracas, Venezuela. The virus is transmitted person-to-person, primarily by coughing. There are no effective antivirals or vaccines...So began a recent day-long exercise hosted by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. The simulation mixed details of past disasters with fictional elements to force government officials and experts to make the kinds of key decisions they could face in a real pandemic. It was a tense day. The exercise was inspired in part by the troubled response to the Ebola epidemic of 2014, and everyone involved was acutely aware of the very real and ongoing Ebola outbreak spreading in Congo.
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A Tale of Two Health Systems
We need a different health system for the majority of us, if only so that we can devote the necessary resources to the people who need to use our health care -- aka medical care -- system the most. My vote is for a public health system. You know, public health. Like clean water. Like vaccinations. Like safer food. Like reducing smoking. It includes a variety of efforts that, intentionally, do not usually look much like medical care but which have drastic impacts on health and longevity. In a recent article in The Upshot, Aaron E. Carroll and Austin Frakt make the case for why we should spend more money on public health. As they detail, we spend very little -- depending on what you count, as low as $10 billion and as high as $100 billion or so, either of which is basically a rounding error in our overall health spending -- but which often have dramatic paybacks.
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Top 8 Open Source Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technologies in Machine Learning
Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are quickly transforming almost every sphere of our lives. From how we communicate to the means we use for transportation, we seem to be getting increasingly addicted to them. Because of these rapid advancements, massive amounts of talent and resources are dedicated to accelerating the growth of the technologies. Here is a list of 8 best open source AI technologies you can use to take your machine learning projects to the next level.
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36th VistA Community Meeting
The VistA community will be gathering at George Mason University Center for Discovery Science and Health Informatics, for the 36th VistA Community Meeting (VCM). The goal of VistA Community Meetings is for those involved in the VistA Community to network & collaborate, i.e., to share ideas and work, with the objective of moving VistA & the VistA community forward.
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Missing Maps Stirling Mapathon
Geographic information and technology specialist thinkWhere is supporting the global humanitarian Missing Maps project by hosting a series of mapathons in Stirling, Scotland. In the evening of 13th June 2018, around 50 local community volunteers, including members of the thinkWhere team, will collaborate on a crowd-sourced Missing Maps data capture project. The fourth event of its kind organised by thinkWhere, it will be the first to be held at the company’s new premises at CodeBase, Stirling.
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A Look at Open Source Image Recognition Technology
Image recognition technology promises great potential in areas from public safety to healthcare...At the Supercomputing Conference in Denver last year, I discovered an interesting project as I walked the expo floor. A PhD student from Louisiana State University, Shayan Shams, had set up a large monitor displaying a webcam image. Overlaid on the image were colored boxes with labels. As I looked closer, I realized the labels identified objects on a table. Of course, I had to play with it. As I moved each object on the table, its label followed. I moved some objects that were off-camera into the field of view, and the system identified them too.
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How Citizens Become Scientists with Open Hardware
Eymund Diegel, a research coordinator for Gowanus Canal Conservancy, shares this tidbit during the first clip of the new Open Source Stories documentary, "The Science of Collective Discovery." He's setting out in a canoe on an inner-city canal that is polluted and struggling to get the help it needs. That's the theme of citizen science it seems: people and places in need who are not getting the help and resources they deserve taking matters into their own hands. Why are they not getting the help they need in the first place? The reason is shockingly simple yet a typical problem: Where's the evidence?
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HLN and Oregon Health Authority Present Optional Approaches to Oregon's School Immunization Reporting Process at Atlanta Conference
At the 2018 National Immunization Conference (NIC) held in Atlanta May 15-17, HLN co-presented Diverse Stakeholder Perspectives to Improve Oregon’s School Immunization Reporting Process in collaboration with the Oregon Immunization Program (OIP). Aaron Dunn, Oregon’s Immunization Program Manager, and Marcey Propp, HLN Project Manager, presented the project context, approach, and outcomes as part of the segment for Improving measurement and reporting to foster clear vaccine communication. The project context included antiquated technology, the growing complexity of vaccine requirements, and excessive, redundant and unnecessary workload that culminated in making the current school immunization reporting process unsustainable.
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Is Cloud Faxing the Solution to the Health IT Usability and Interoperability Crisis?
The Healthcare industry is in profound crisis as the HITECH Act of 2009 led medical facilities across the United States to spend in excess of $3 trillion on the purchase and implementation of expensive electronic health records (EHRs) under the Meaningful Use program. Yet, the most fundamental goals of electronic records Nirvana that were promised have not been achieved. For multiple reasons, EHRs have turned out to lack usability and be non-interoperable. In fact, most monopoly EHR vendors are engaged in what is commonly called “data blocking.” In most cases physicians are unable to obtain medical records for the patients they are seeing and patients have a hard time getting a hold of their own medical records. That means that the medical records are not available at the most important moment, the caregiver/patient encounter, and are not available to the patients themselves and their family members.
- The Future Is Open
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Too Many Poor Excuses
I am so tired of reading yet another story about how we -- Americans -- cannot afford things. Not luxury items, not splurges, not nice-to-have items. Increasingly, it seems like too many of us can't afford what most people would consider basics -- food, housing, child care, transportation. And health care, of course. A new study by the United Way ALICE Project (a collaboration of United Ways in 18 states) found that 51 million households can't afford a basic monthly budget that includes food, housing, health care, child care, and a cell phone. That is 43% of all U.S. households.
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