News

Summaries of open source, health care, or health IT news and information from various sources on the web selected by Open Health News (OHNews) staff. Links are provided to the original news or information source, e.g. news article, web site, journal,blog, video, etc.

See the following -

Improving Health Workforce Leadership And Management

Sarah Dwyer | CapacityPlus | October 1, 2013

To improve health services, Uganda is focusing on the people that provide quality care. In our new video, Ugandan health workers, managers, and leaders show how the country’s efforts are paying off—and how service delivery has improved. The following story highlights one aspect of this work. Read More »

Improving Healthcare in Zambia with CouchDB

James Turner | O'Reilly Community | March 31, 2011

A new healthcare project in Zambia is trying to integrate supervisors, clinics, and community healthcare workers (CHW) into a system that can improve patient service and provide more data about the effectiveness of care. Because of the technical challenges in an extreme rural setting, unique solutions are required. CouchDB is a document-oriented database released under an Apache open source license. According to Cory Zue, chief technology officer of Dimagi, CouchDB went a long way toward keeping a consistent set of records under extreme circumstances. 

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Improving Patient Safety Is Key Priority For Digital Healthcare

Staff Writer | TheInformationDaily.com | August 26, 2013

One of the main problems with the UK's healthcare providers is the fragmented nature by which they share information. This often leaves patients feeling they have received impersonal care. Read More »

Improving Public Access To Research Results

Sally Rockey | Rock Talk | November 16, 2012

Most researchers are familiar with our public access policy which is central to the NIH mission. It ensures NIH-funded research is accessible to everyone so that, collectively, we can advance science and improve human health. [...] Read More »

Improving Quality of Care: How the VA Outpaces Other Systems in Delivering Patient Care

Steven M. Asch, Elizabeth A. McGlynn, Mary M. Hogan, et al | RAND Corporation | December 21, 2004

In its 2001 report Crossing the Quality Chasm, the Institute of Medicine called for systematic reform to address shortfalls in U.S. health care quality. Recommended reforms included developing medical informatics infrastructure, a performance tracking system, and methods to ensure provider and manager accountability...How does the VA measure up against other U.S. health care providers? Read More »

Improving Quality Patient Outcomes A Money Loser For Hospitals

Evan Albright | Forbes | April 17, 2013

Surgical patients who have complications generate better margins for hospitals, a new study  in the Journal of American Medical Association has found. Cue the outrage from the consumer media about “profit-hungry hospitals.” Read More »

IMS MAXIMS Awarded Place on G-Cloud Framework for Four Consecutive Years

Press Release | IMS MAXIMS | July 29, 2016

Supplier of the UK’s first open source EPR, IMS MAXIMS has been awarded a place on the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) G-Cloud Framework for the fourth year in a row, as successful applicants to the G-Cloud 8 were revealed today. The G-Cloud 8 Framework is an online services marketplace which public sector organisations, including agencies and arm’s length bodies, can use to purchase cloud-based services. It is designed to help buyers compare and easily procure digital services that suit their needs...

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IMS MAXIMS releases improved version of open source EPR (EHR)

Press Release | IMS MAXIMS | January 22, 2016

This week sees the release of the latest version of the IMS MAXIMS open source electronic patient record (EPR), openMAXIMS, which includes all of the enhancements made for Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust. Taunton was the first trust to go live with the software and has been working closely with IMS MAXIMS on the new functionality. The upgraded code is now available on the open source website (GitHub), with many new features, including clinical triage of referrals to direct patients to the appropriate service and care according to clinical priority, and pre-operative assessment for theatres, ensuring patients are fit and suitable for surgery.

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In A Close Vote, Congress Shamefully Defeats Amendment That Sought To Curtail NSA Surveillance

Mark M. Jaycox | Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) | July 24, 2013

The US House of Representatives came within a few votes of passing a novel amendment that attempted to strike out funding for the highly contentious NSA calling records surveillance program... Read More »

In A World Without Open Source

Tim Yeaton | Wired | July 2, 2013

In the Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles,” we see a graphic example of how small initial changes can lead to monumental consequences over a fairly short time. [...] Read More »

In Affordable Smartphones, Firefox OS Shines But Nokia's X Phone Strategy Is Murky

Phil Goldstein | FierceWireless | February 25, 2014

One of the major themes I'm hearing here at the Mobile World Congress trade show is that handset makers across the board are focusing on affordable smartphones. Mozilla and its Firefox OS partners seems to be hitting the mark more than others by aligning the user experience they're delivering with the price points they are setting for the phones. Read More »

In Defence Of Open Access Systems

Leslie Chan | The Hindu | December 31, 2012

LESLIE CHAN, champion of the Open Access Initiative, tells G. MAHADEVAN that the traditional journals will lose the battle to Open Access publications. Read More »

In Defense Industry, A Souring Mood On Acquisition Reform

Sandra I. Erwin | National Defense | March 21, 2014

When Trey Obering was deputy director of the Defense Department’s missile defense agency in 2002, he was asked to fix one of the most troubled acquisition programs in recent history. The airborne laser — a modified Boeing 747 jet that carried a megawatt laser to shoot down ballistic missiles — was handed over by the Air Force to MDA after eight years of nonachievement.

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In Depth Review: New NSA Documents Expose How Americans Can Be Spied On Without A Warrant

Kurt Opsahl and Trevor Timm | Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) | June 21, 2013

The Guardian published a new batch of secret leaked FISA court and NSA documents yesterday, which detail the particulars of how government has been accessing Americans’ emails without a warrant, in violation of the Constitution. [...] Read More »

In Disasters Such as Hurricanes, HIE Is 'As Critical as Having Roads, as Having Fire Hydrants'

Mike Miliard | Healthcare IT News | October 31, 2012

The Statewide Health Information Network of New York (SHIN-NY) sees itself as a "public utility" as much as an HIE. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, as patients bounce between hospitals (and as other public utilities, such as electricity and transportation, are compromised), it has enabled critical continuity of care. The images of dozens of red-flashing ambulances, evacuating as many as 200 patients – some of them in critical condition, some of them infants – from NYU Langone Medical Center, whose backup generator had failed, to hospitals such as Sloan-Kettering and NewYork-Presbyterian, will be some of the most enduring images from the super storm. The harrowing process was made much smoother by the fact that those patients' electronic health records were secure and readily accessible at the hospitals to which they were thanks to New York's statewide HIE... Read More »