Why the VA Should Stick with VistA and Not Waste $16 Billion on an Attempt to Replace It
This VA leadership lull provides an opportunity for reflection. Specifically, it’s worth asking while we have the time whether Cerner is the right path for the VA to take. While the decision may seem like a no-brainer to some, the VA’s situation is unique and arguably calls for a singular approach to both existing organizational issues and a major healthcare IT decision. Specific to the Cerner decision, what should the new VA secretary consider?
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Signatures are No Longer Required for Credit Card Transactions...How Come Most Medical Records Exchanges Still Require Fax Machines?
If you live in the U.S., you've probably had the experience of paying for a meal using a credit card. The server takes your card, disappears to somewhere in the back, does something with it that you can't see, and returns with your card, along with two paper receipts, one of which you need to sign. Everything that happens to me, I think, what is this, the 1960's?As of last week, the major credit card companies -- American Express, Discover, Mastercard, and Visa -- are no longer requiring that signature. As a Mastercard person told CNET, "It is the right time to eliminate an antiquated practice."
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2018 Health Datapalooza
The gathering place for people and organizations creating knowledge from data and pioneering innovations that drive health policy and practice. Health Datapalooza sits at the nexus of ideas, evidence, and execution. Where Federal policymakers and regulatory leads take their seats beside Silicon Valley startups and the health system’s chief information officers. More than a meeting, Health Datapalooza is a diverse community of big thinkers and roll-up-our-sleeves-and-get-it-done problem solvers who share a mission to liberate and use data to improve health and health care.
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Healthcare Has Cost Problems, but IT and EHRs Do Not Have to be One of Them
I’m proud to lead a group of intelligent and energetic technology professionals committed to developing a robust healthcare IT system that is (1) easy for clinicians to use, (2) improves patient health and (3) doesn’t bankrupt hospital budgets. We think any sustainable system must have those three key requirements. And how is healthcare doing thus far? The EHRs available today are developing rapidly. Vendors are making frequent and impactful improvements to improve system usability. Clinicians are getting better at maximizing the contribution healthcare IT makes to patient health and safety. It’s not hard to see how healthcare IT can meet the first two requirements and broadly contribute to improved healthcare.
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Application Deadline to Host OpenMRS 2018 Annual Implementers Meet Coming Up
The deadline to apply to host the 2018 International OpenMRS Implementers conference is coming up on April 30 [updated]. Nations that want to host the meeting need to answer the detailed questionnaire by that time. For those Open Health News readers who have missed one of the greatest health IT stories of the decade, the Government of Uganda hosted the 2016 OpenMRS meeting in their capital city of Kampala. The conference was such an extraordinary success that a large number of other national governments volunteered to host the 2017 Implementer's conference. There are currently close to 40 countries around the world where OpenMRS is being implemented throughout the county in large-scale deployments.
- The Future Is Open
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Sidelined HHS Deputy Chief Information Security Officer blasts agency, claims cybersecurity center 'decimated'
After being abruptly placed on admin leave, Leo Scanlon opens up about his 150-day leave, “dirty politics,” and what it means for the future of the HCCIC cybersecurity initiative...HHS’ HCCIC had overwhelming support from Congress and industry leaders when it launched as part of a partnership with the National Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (NH-ISAC). It was designed to take a leadership role facilitating threat intelligence and other cybersecurity related information sharing and, in fact, played a pivotal role in fighting the global WannaCry attack in June of 2017.
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“Write Code! Save Lives!” OpenMRS Meet in Malawi Shows the Way
More recently, I attended the 12th annual International OpenMRS Implementers’ Conference in the capital city of Malawi, Lilongwe, from Dec. 12 to 16, 2017. At this annual event, volunteers, developers and implementers came together to talk about all things OpenMRS and develop strategies for the evolution and applications of the software....Meeting this determined and committed community has boosted my drive and sense of purpose for writing code. I feel like this is the kind of project that I can contribute code to for many years to come. At the conference, I was reminded of a common Global Health Corps saying: “Once a fellow, always a fellow!”
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New Modalities for Technical Assistance Consulting
Technical assistance (TA) is provided by expert consultants to public health systems projects in order to improve their performance against functional standards or to help solve recurring or one-time problems or issues. Unlike other forms of training or support, TA is usually focused or tailored to a specific circumstance or situation. Common examples of TA include assistance to a jurisdiction in migrating from one product to another, consultation related to a specific programmatic initiative such as school immunization health compliance, EHR interoperability implementation, or data quality review.
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OSEHRA Innovation Webinar on the VA's Recently Announced Lighthouse Project
On Tuesday, March 27, OSEHRA will present a special Innovation Webinar on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Lighthouse project, delivered by VA’s Drew Myklegard. Lighthouse is a proposed Application Programming Interface (API) management platform that allows developers to create mobile and web apps on a set of open standards based APIs including an initial FHIR endpoint. Lighthouse aims to both enable rapid innovation, and be veteran-centric, by giving developers the ability to design solutions that leverage VA data.
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Amazon hires openFDA trailblazer Kass-Hout for healthcare project: report
Amazon has hired former FDA chief health informatics officer Taha Kass-Hout, M.D., CNBC reports. Kass-Hout led the groundbreaking openFDA initiative and rehabilitated the reputation of the FDA’s IT department during his three years at the agency. Details of what Kass-Hout will do at Amazon are scarce....during his time at the FDA, Kass-Hout lead the precisionFDA program that established a collaborative, open approach to genomic testing references. Across the initiatives, Kass-Hout deployed approaches that were established in tech circles but alien to the FDA prior to his arrival. Open-source projects that embraced the cloud, shared their code on GitHub and invited programmers to hackathons became commonplace.
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