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 -

Italy Is Latest To Promote Open Source Software In Public Procurements

Paul Brownell | OpenSource.com | January 22, 2014

In December, the Italian government issued final rules implementing a change to procurement law that now requires all public administrations in the country to first consider re-used or free software before committing to proprietary licenses. Importantly, the new rules include an enforcement mechanism, which can, at least in theory, annul decisions that do not follow these procedures. Read More »

Italy Posts Benchmark Open vs Closed Software

Gijs Hillenius | European Commission | January 10, 2014

The Agenzia per l'Italia Digitale (AGID) on Wednesday posted the criteria and guidelines on how to compare open source and proprietary software. The document is to help public administrations to give priority to free and open source solutions, and to the re-use of software paid for by public administrations. [...] Read More »

Italy's South Tyrol Starts Three-Year LibreOffice Migration

Gijs Hillenius | European Commission (EC) | June 20, 2013

The government of Italy's South Tyrol province this morning announced a plan to implement LibreOffice, a free and open source suite of office productivity tools, in all of its public administrations, including municipal administration and healthcare organisations, during the next three years. [...] Read More »

ITU And Continua Heath Alliance To Host E-Health Interop Event

Simão Ferraz de Campos Neto | itu4u | October 21, 2013

ITU and Continua Health Alliance are organizing an event to analyze recent developments in the e-health sphere, shed light on emerging product offerings, and assess the interoperability of e-health solutions developed in accordance with Continua’s Design Guidelines. Read More »

ITU Signs Off Network Spec For Personal Medical Devices

Simon Sharwood | The Register | December 22, 2013

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has signed off a new standard for communication between personal medical devices. Read More »

It’s Back: District Court Judge Revives SCO v IBM

Lee Hutchinson | Ars Technica | June 17, 2013

Sad that Game of Thrones has wrapped up its third season? Looking for some drama to fill the time? We've got just the thing for you. One of the Internet's longest-running and most-hated lawsuits is back: SCO v. IBM has been reopened by Utah district court judge David Nuffer. Read More »

It’s Doctors Versus Hospitals Over Meaningful Use

Adrian Gropper | The Health Care Blog | December 12, 2013

The Massachusetts Medical Society may be the first to notice that Meaningful Use EHR mandates favor large providers and technology vendors. Control over the Nationwide Health Information Network sets the stage for how physicians refer, receive decision support, report quality, and interact with patients. Read More »

It’s Go Time for the Presidential Innovation Fellows

Todd Park | Whitehouse.gov | August 21, 2012

Excitement is building as we prepare for Thursday’s launch of the Presidential Innovation Fellows program. This new initiative is bringing in top innovators from outside government to work with top innovators inside government to create real and substantial changes that will in a very short time frame benefit the American people, save taxpayers money, and help create new jobs. Read More »

It’s The System, Stupid: Reversing The Law Of Unintended Consequences

Edmund Billings | Medsphere | February 4, 2013

We should have seen it coming, really. It was entirely predictable, and the most recent RAND report proves it. We incentivized comprehensive IT adoption, making it easier to bill for every procedure, examination, aspirin, tongue depressor, kind word and gentle (or not) touch without first flipping the American healthcare paradigm on its head... Read More »

It’s Time To Change American Disease-Management Into A Health-Fostering System

Joseph Mercola | Mercola.com | March 18, 2013

I’ve recently written a couple of articles about the exorbitant cost of medical care in the US, which is incompatible with the poor health outcomes of Americans at large. Americans pay the most for but reap the least amount of benefits from their health care, compared to other industrialized nations... Read More »

It’s ‘Digital Heroin’: How Screens Turn Kids into Psychotic Junkies

Nicholas Kardaras, | New York Post | August 27, 2016

Susan* bought her 6-year-old son John an iPad when he was in first grade. “I thought, ‘Why not let him get a jump on things?’ ” she told me during a therapy session. John’s school had begun using the devices with younger and younger grades — and his technology teacher had raved about their educational benefits — so Susan wanted to do what was best for her sandy-haired boy who loved reading and playing baseball. She started letting John play different educational games on his iPad. Eventually, he discovered Minecraft, which the technology teacher assured her was “just like electronic Lego.” Remembering how much fun she had as a child building and playing with the interlocking plastic blocks, Susan let her son Minecraft his afternoons away...

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IU Scientist to Lead Study on the Use of Telehealth to Assist Veterans with Mild Brain Injury

Press Release | Indiana University | June 26, 2012

An Indiana University researcher has received a grant from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to develop a new assessment mechanism that will improve long-distance care for military veterans with mild traumatic brain injury. The system will be piloted at five hospitals serving veterans and active-duty soldiers in the South and Midwest, including the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

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I’m Now a Thing on the Internet of Things

Carl Bergman | EMR & EHR | October 11, 2016

When Carl Bergman isn't rooting for the Washington Nationals or searching for a Steeler bar, he’s Managing Partner of EHRSelector.com, a free service for matching users and EHRs. For the last dozen years, he’s concentrated on EHR consulting and writing. He spent the 80s and 90s as an itinerant project manger doing his small part for the dot com bubble. Prior to that, Bergman served a ten year stretch in the District of Columbia government as a policy and fiscal analyst...

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I’m Very PTSD Aware

Bob Brewin | Nextgov | June 24, 2013

Both the Army and the VA want us all to be aware that this is PTSD Awareness month and do something about it. Read More »

J&J Sets Drug Data Free In ‘YODA’ Collaboration With Yale

Drew Armstrong | Bloomberg | January 31, 2014

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) will give academics access to data on clinical trials, a move that may prompt more companies to do the same. Read More »