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 -

StopWatching.Us: Mozilla Launches Massive Campaign On Digital Surveillance

Alex Fowler | The Mozilla Blog | June 11, 2013

Last week, media reports emerged that the US government is requiring vast amounts of data from Internet and phone companies via top secret surveillance programs. The revelations, which confirm many of our worst fears, raise serious questions about individual privacy protections, checks on government power and court orders impacting some of the most popular Web services. Read More »

Stories from Patients and their Caregivers Uncover Opportunities to Improve Healthcare Value

Neel Shah | clearhealthcosts.com | September 10, 2012

As a presidential election looms and the American economy struggles to recover, the spiraling costs of healthcare have become a contentious political focal point without an obvious solution. Yet for patients and their caregivers, opportunities to get more bang for our buck present themselves every day. Read More »

Storm Warning: Why 100% Cloud Uptime Is Impossible

Mike Pav | ReadWrite | February 11, 2013

When Amazon Web Services crashed on Christmas Eve (which brought down Netflix among other high-profile sites), Amazon offered this explanation: its elastic load balancers failed. Load balancers, as the name implies, distribute the network's workload. Among their most important functions is protecting the system's components from becoming overburdened and shutting down. Read More »

Storm's Impact On Amazon Data Center Renews Cloud Concerns

Wyatt Kash | GovLoop | July 2, 2012

Federal agencies and regional data center operators, including one operated by Amazon Web Services, are still taking stock of the impact of widespread power outages that began Friday night and continue to leave large swaths of greater Washington, D.C., region without electrical power. Read More »

Strange Sales Tactic: Oracle Blasts Defense-VA on Use of Open Source Software

Bob Brewin | NextGov | October 16, 2013

Oracle Corp. put out a 19-page white paper last month that pilloried the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments for thinking open source software can save money...The white paper zeroed in on the now aborted effort to develop a Defense-VA integrated electronic health record as a prime example of the billions that can be wasted on an open source project – even though the Pentagon has historically resisted using VA’s...VistA system. Read More »

Strapped For Funding, Medical Researchers Pitch To The Crowd

Virginia Hughes | Nature.com | September 7, 2012

In April, Dyer turned to Medstartr, one of several new crowd-funding websites tailored for scientific research and the healthcare sector. Medstartr, which debuted online in July, focuses on helping biomedical start-ups solicit small donations from everyday citizens. Meanwhile, Petridish, which came online 6 March, and iAMscientist, on 31 July, are helping scientists affiliated with academic or nonprofit institutions raise money for their research.

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Strata Week: Leaked Documents, Intel Committees, Definition Of Data Mining, And Accumulo

Ann Spencer | O'Reilly Strata | June 21, 2013

I was cranky from absorbing the NSA news dominating many data conversations.[...] My crankiness dissolved a bit after speaking with Q and other Chicago-based people who are working on positive impact data science projects. Read More »

Strengthening Democracy In South Africa

Loren Treisman | Indigo Trust | May 16, 2013

Across the globe, access to critical laws, parliamentary information and locally relevant news and an informed and engaged citizenry contribute towards a thriving democracy. South Africa is no different.  I came across a number of organisations which are contributing towards this process in very different ways. Read More »

Strengthening Participatory Organization Uses FrontlineSMS In Pakistan To Improve Service Delivery After Floods

Cathryn Stickel | FrontlineSMS | July 11, 2013

When monsoons flooded southern Pakistan in 2011, the Strengthening Participatory Organization (SPO) quickly implemented a disaster relief project to distribute food items and shelter. This case study takes a look at their work, in collaboration with the Popular Engagement Policy Lab and Raabta Consultants, using FrontlineSMS to improve services in the aftermath of disaster. Read More »

Strengthening Protection of Patient Medical Data

Adam Tanner | The Century Foundation | January 10, 2017

Americans seeking medical care expect a certain level of privacy. Indeed, the need for patient privacy is a principle dating back to antiquity, and is codified in U.S. law, most notably the Privacy Rule of the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which establishes standards that work toward protecting patient health information. But the world of information is rapidly changing, and in this environment, U.S. rules fall precariously short in protecting our medical data...

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Strengthening The Health Workforce through eHealth Innovation: Reflections From The GETHealth Summit

Kate Tulenko | CapacityPlus | March 1, 2013

I recently had the privilege of representing CapacityPlus at the Global Education and Technology Health (GETHealth) Summit at the United Nations in New York City, speaking in sessions on distance learning in rural communities and leveraging social media to address the global health workforce gap. Read More »

Stuart Smith's Letter To The Register

Stuart Smith | Boothbay Register | May 1, 2013

I do question the $150 million figure. I think it is extremely high and Portland has had a real failure in its implementation. So much so that it looks like LCH will not have a real integrated EMR until 2015 and financial software problems exemplify a major failure of MH to create any real benefit to the State. Millions of dollars have been charged to member hospitals and staff time (salaries and mileage) over the past 2-3 years with no benefit... Read More »

Student Proposes Open Source Alternative To GPS Based On Seismic Waves

Carl Franzen | The Verge | February 19, 2013

Global positioning system (GPS) satellites are great for getting around and looking up directions and smartphones and tablets, but they are controlled by the US Defense Department, which has degraded public signals in the past, and one European art student thinks that an open source alternative based on ground vibrations would be better. Read More »

Student-Faculty Research Shows Oreos Are Just As Addictive As Drugs In Lab Rats

Press Release | Connecticut College | October 15, 2013

Connecticut College students and a professor of psychology have found “America’s favorite cookie” is just as addictive as cocaine – at least for lab rats. And just like most humans, rats go for the middle first. Read More »

Students Rush To Web Classes, But Profits May Be Much Later

Tamar Lewin | New York Times | January 6, 2013

More top colleges are offering free massive open online courses, but companies and universities still need to figure out a way to monetize them.
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