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API Infrastructure Importance When Providing a Health Service

Andy Oram | EMR & EHR | May 2, 2016

In my ongoing review of application programming interfaces (APIs) as a technical solution for offering rich and flexible services in health care, I recently ran into two companies who showed as much enthusiasm for their internal technologies behind the APIs as for the APIs themselves. APIs are no longer a novelty in health services, as they were just five years ago. As the field gets crowded, maintenance and performance take on more critical roles in offering a successful business–so let’s see how Orion Health and Mana Health back up their very different offerings...

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ASTHO Releases Two New Reports On IIS

In March 2023 the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers (ASTHO) released two environmental scans related to public health data and systems funded by a grant from ONC. The first report, Immunization Information Systems, and Health Information Exchanges: An Environmental Scan of Factors Influencing Data Sharing and Opportunities to Advance Population Health, provides a review of the state of both IIS and HIEs – as well as their points of intersection and support – especially as they were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. ASTHO used a mixture of secondary source review (including our white paper on this topic from nearly ten years ago) and current interviews and focus groups to inform us about this complex and fluid topic.

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Autism Rates Rising Sharply, CDC Reports

Alan Zarembo | Los Angeles Times | March 30, 2012

Federal health authorities have significantly raised their estimate of the prevalence of autism in children, concluding in a new study of 8-year-olds that 1 in 88 has some form of the disorder. Read More »

Department of Health APIs to Expand Web Content

Andy Oram | EMR & EHR | October 21, 2015

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) appeal mostly to statisticians and researchers whose careers depend on access to data. But these programming tools are also a useful part of a Web that is becoming increasingly supple and sophisticated. I have written a series of articles about the use of APIs to share and run analytics on patient data, but today I’ll cover a cool use of an API developed by the Department of Health and Human Services for disseminating educational material. The locus for this activity started with the wealth of information created by the Centers for Disease Control for doctors, public health workers, and the general public. Striving to help the public understand vaccinations, West Nile fever, Ebola (when that was a major publicissue), and even everyday conditions such as diabetes, the CDC realized they had to make their content simple to embed in web sites for allthose audiences.

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Ebola in the United States: Short on Accountable 'Open' Information, Effective Systems Planning and Decision Making

Events in the present Ebola crisis prompt unease that the United States deployment of Web based, standardized population health and biosurveillance information services is fragmented, incomplete and insufficient, prompting me to write this blog. The United States has made significant progress in public health and medical preparedness since the 9/11 terrorist attacks; yet, poorly interconnected information systems add to our vulnerability to planning and response to viruses like Ebola or enviro virus EV-D68 that threaten the health of large populations. Today, a gap exists between information technology specialists and public health programmatic or scientific personnel. 

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Tapping Big Data for Early Identification of Preventable Conditions

Roger Foster | Government Health IT | June 4, 2012

The cost to the U.S. healthcare system from preventable conditions and avoidable care has been estimated in the range of $25-50 billion annually. Preventable conditions are a significant component of the $600-850 billion surplus in healthcare spending ultimately increasing cost and decreasing the overall quality of public health.

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Uncontrolled Health Care Costs Traced to Data and Communication Failures

Andy Oram | EMR & EHR | April 13, 2016

The previous section of this article provided whatever detail I could find on the costs of poor communications and data exchange among health care providers. But in truth, it’s hard to imagine the toll taken by communications failures beyond certain obvious consequences, such as repeated tests and avoidable medical errors. One has to think about how the field operates and what we would be capable of with proper use of data. As patients move from PCP to specialist, from hospital to rehab facility, and from district to district, their providers need not only discharge summaries but intensive coordination to prevent relapses. Our doctors are great at fixing a diabetic episode or heart-related event...

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What do mHealth, eHealth and Behavioral Science Mean for the Future of Healthcare?

Alex Howard | O'Reilly Radar | May 21, 2012

We're living through one of the most dynamic periods in healthcare in our collective history...This month, I had the opportunity to discuss some of these trends with Dr. Audie Atienza (@AudieAtienza), a researcher who focuses on behavioral science and healthcare.

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WHO Releases Report on Emerging Technologies and Scientific Innovations

In early July 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued its 2023 report on Emerging Technologies and Scientific Innovations: A Global Public Health Perspective. This insightful and detailed report is the result of strategic engagement with a panel of global health experts through the use of an online Delphi method, roundtable discussions, and key informant interviews. The purpose of this report is to identify innovations in research and emerging technologies that have the potential to impact global health in the next five to ten years.