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 -

Why Healthcare Costs Are A Civil Rights Issue

Alicia Caramenico | FierceHealthcare | August 29, 2013

Fifty years since Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech on Aug. 28, healthcare spending as a percentage of the gross domestic product has jumped from 5.5 percent in 1963 to 18 percent today. Read More »

Why Healthcare Data Security, Compliance Issues Go Untreated

Dave Brunswick | Health IT Security | August 9, 2016

Secure managed file transfer solutions can be beneficial to covered entities as they work to overcome healthcare data security and compliance issues. If there ever was a pulse of healthcare operations, it’s data. From patient enrollment forms, electronic health records, and health insurance information, the amount of electronic data flowing through the medical community increases every day. With that, healthcare data security must also be a top priority...

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Why Healthcare Is A Boon For Private Equity

Kiran Raj Pandey | KevinMD.com | October 25, 2012

Here’s why: first, there is no real linkage between demand and supply with healthcare. In ordinary market economics, demand and supply tend to have an inverse relationship  with each other. Not so with health care; since nobody can really predict the need for a certain health service. And when you do need it, there isn’t really the time to shop around. So the demand and supply can’t really be moderated based on each other.

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Why Healthcare Isn’t Ready For Innovation: Docs, Vendors, Hospital Hiring Practices

Sean McCown | MedCity | March 6, 2013

I just left the healthcare industry for the second time and it’s sad the level of ignorance and superstition that exists around computers . . . and SQL especially. [...] It’s pathetic how far behind the industry as a whole is and the people who work in it are so close-minded I don’t see how they ever get anything done. Read More »

Why Healthcare Providers Aren't Happy With EHR Systems

Brian Eastwood | CIO.com | July 1, 2013

The U.S. government is giving the healthcare industry billions of dollars in incentives to use electronic health records. Most organizations have EHR software in place, but as many as 35 percent wish they could switch systems. Are EHR vendors to blame, or are deeper forces at work? Read More »

Why Healthcare.gov Has So Many Problems

Steven Bellovin | CNN | October 15, 2013

No one should be surprised by the technical problems that have plagued the new health insurance exchange website, HealthCare.gov, which allows millions of Americans to sign up and buy health coverage. Angry, OK. Disappointed, of course. But surprised? Don't be. Read More »

Why Healthcare.gov Sucks? Because They Hired Political Cronies, Not Internet Native Companies To Build It

Mike Masnick | Techdirt | October 10, 2013

There's been plenty of talk lately about just how screwed up the launch of Healthcare.gov has been. While any massively large-scale internet launch is likely to suffer some problems, the level of disaster on this particular project has been quite impressive. This has led some to wonder why this happened [...]. Read More »

Why Healthcare.gov Went Wrong—A Lack Of “Agile”

Tim Fernholz | Quartz | October 25, 2013

In 2010 [...] Barack Obama told a group of CEOs that the government’s “best efforts are thwarted because the technological revolution that has transformed our society over the past two decades has yet to reach many parts of our government.” He outlined priorities to make the government a better user and buyer of information technology. Now, his administration’s signature initiative is embroiled in a massive IT project gone wrong... Read More »

Why Hospital Data Centers Are Moving to the Cloud

Meg Bryant | Healthcare DIVE | March 30, 2017

As hospital data center infrastructures age and resources shrink, IT leaders are increasingly looking to the cloud to meet their storage needs. Not only is it cheaper than investing in upgrades and replacements of existing hardware and software, but it can add a level of security, especially in disaster-prone areas. The trend has some wondering if hospitals will still have physical data centers in the future or whether they will go the way of the dinosaurs.

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Why Humans Still Can't Go To Mars

Brian Fung | Nextgov | May 31, 2013

Long-distance human spaceflight is, famously, a bust. So far, anyway -- no doubt we'll figure it out someday. But the reason we haven't sent humans on five-year missions seeking out new life and new civilizations isn't because of cost, politics, or lack of warp drive. The real reason is that astronauts would probably be killed by radiation before they met their first gas giant. Read More »

Why I Think Richard Stallman is a Fanatic, and Why That Matters.

Eric S. Raymond | Armed and Dangerous | June 11, 2012

One of my commenters reports that he showed my essay on evaluating the harm from closed-source software to Richard Stallman, who became upset by it. It shouldn’t be news to RMS or anyone else that I think he’s a fanatic and this is a problem, but it seems that every few years I have to explain the problem again.

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Why I've All But Given Up On Windows

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes | ZDNet | November 12, 2013

After more than two decades of being a dedicated Windows power user, and having invested tens of thousands of hours into mastering the platform, and run versions spanning from 3.0 to 8.1, I've now all but given up on Windows. Read More »

Why Integrating EMRs And Digital Images Is An Ethical And Practical Imperative

Andrew Litt | Computerworld | November 13, 2013

We've all been there. Following an injury, you or a family member gets an X-ray or MRI but when you follow up with a specialist a few weeks later, he or she can't access the study (unless, of course, you made a special trip to pick up a CD from the other care provider). In this age of rapid-fast information sharing, it's hard to understand why this still happens. Read More »

Why Is American Health Care So Ridiculously Expensive?

Derek Thompson | The Atlantic | March 27, 2013

It would be nice to say that high prices are a bug of our medical system. But they're a feature. They're part of a choice we've made. Read More »

Why Is EHR Certification Endangering Stage 2 Meaningful Use?

Kyle Murphy | EHR Intelligence | December 2, 2013

The clock is already ticking for hospitals, especially those eligible and participating in the EHR Incentive Programs. Stage 2 Meaningful Use is already underway for these hospitals which must complete their attestation during one of four mandated reporting quarters. At the same time, they must continue their preparations for ICD-10 come Oct. 1, 2014. Read More »