HHS Called on to Eliminate Health Information Blocking
A coalition of healthcare stakeholders convened by Health IT Now called HHS and its departments to eliminate information blocking so that providers can effectively aggregate patient EHRs and advance interoperability. The letter from organizations including the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), AMIA, DirectTrust, and athenahealth requested HHS issue a proposed rule that takes existing laws, standardization, patient health data access, and other complicating factors into consideration...
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Nigerian Inventor Creates Computer That Can Smell Explosives and Cancer Cells
Nigerian inventor Oshiorenoya Agabi has designed and developed a computer that can identify the smell of explosives and cancer cells through a combination of neurons and silicon. The Nigerian neuroscientist, who is based in Silicon Valley, unveiled his incredible invention at the TEDGlobal conference in Tanzania this week...
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A New Pothole on the Health Interoperability Superhighway
On July 24, the new administration kicked off their version of interoperability work with a public meeting of the incumbent trust brokers. They invited the usual suspects Carequality, CARIN Alliance, CommonWell, Digital Bridge, DirectTrust, eHealth Exchange, NATE, and SHIEC with the goal of driving for an understanding of how these groups will work with each other to solve information blocking and longitudinal health records as mandated by the 21st Century Cures Act...
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Meet the Family Doctor with a Rare Practice — He Only Makes House Calls
When it comes to Ernest Brown's medical practice, the doctor is definitely not in. Ever. That’s a good thing for his patients, however, because it usually means he’s out visiting them. Brown, 49, is a family practitioner who only makes house calls. That means he travels to patients — at their homes, work sites, or hotel rooms if they’re visiting from out of town...
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Feds' Rampant Use of No-Bid Contracts the Essence of Corruption
Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) David Shulkin just awarded a contract worth billions of dollars to Cerner, a health technology company. Secretary Shulkin, who was seeking a firm to build the VA's new electronic health records system, awarded the contract without even considering proposals from other companies...
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Creating a High-Speed Internet Lane for Emergency Situations
During large disasters, like hurricanes, wildfires and terrorist attacks, people want emergency responders to arrive quickly and help people deal with the crisis. In order to do their best, police, medics, firefighters and those who manage them need lots of information: Who is located where, needing what help? And what equipment and which rescuers are available to intervene? With all of the technology we have, it might seem that gathering and sharing lots of information would be pretty simple. But communicating through a disaster is much more challenging than it appears...
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Fish Exposed to Wastewater Absorb Many Medications Meant for People
Evidence that fish are being contaminated by pharmaceuticals introduced into wastewater keeps building. That's clear as scientists look beyond drug levels in bodies of water and directly measure concentrations in the blood of fish that swim there, as one team undertook for a new study published July 26 in the journal Environmental Pollution. While experts say human health isn't at risk, unknowns remain, given the increases in pollution levels as the population grows...
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Where Do Big Ideas for Greater Good Come From? Humanitarians Tell All
Ideas are to SwitchPoint what wind is to a hurricane. The conference swirls with innovative approaches, unexpected methods, and brilliant inventions. Even the information is presented in unconventional ways, including through networking events and microlabs where attendees interact with presenters in intimate settings...
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“In Preparedness and Response, Reaching Communities Should Be ‘First Mile’, Not the Last”
IFRC Secretary General Elhadj As Sy has issued an impassioned plea for smarter humanitarian response to climate-related disasters and greater investment ahead of crises. Speaking on a high-level panel at the end of the United Nations Economic and Social Council’s annual ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment, Mr Sy presented ideas for how communities can be helped to withstand predictable shocks, recover faster, and operate from a “very different baseline”...
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Why US Infrastructure Compares Poorly Against Other Countries and How to Fix It
How does infrastructure in the U.S. compare to that of the rest of the world? It depends on who you ask. On the last two report cards from the American Society of Civil Engineers, U.S. infrastructure scored a D+. This year’s report urged the government and private sector to increase spending by US$2 trillion within the next 10 years, in order to improve not only the physical infrastructure, but the country’s economy overall. Meanwhile, the country’s international rank in overall infrastructure quality jumped from 25th to 12th place out of 138 countries, according to the World Economic Forum...
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