open source software (OSS)

See the following -

Release of the VistA Evolution Program Plan and VistA 4 Product Roadmap

Press Release | OSEHRA | May 9, 2014

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has requested OSEHRA’s assistance in publicizing two key documents: the VistA Evolution Program Plan and the VistA 4 Product Roadmap. These official reports, submitted to Congress in March of this year, contain a wealth of information and specific plans to make VistA a state-of-the-art electronic health record.

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Rep. Issa: Crafting 21St Century IT Reform

Darrell Issa | Nextgov | September 20, 2012

The draft legislation would give agency CIOs effective budget authority over IT programs and put the CIO Council in charge of developing shared services and shared platforms. It also would encourage a broader transition to cloud solutions, make it easier for agencies to embrace the use of open source software, open up federal websites and data for the development of complimentary apps, and support faster data center optimization. Read More »

Report Highlights Positive Elements of U.S. Government Open Source Adoption

I think we've all read our fair share of reports about lessons learned and the challenges and opportunities for governments taking up open source software. Frankly, many of them seem a bit dry, and often repetitive. But one study I recently came across (that has not received much media coverage) stood out. Its predicate was different that most, recognizing the positive: open source software (OSS) "is being used in [the U.S.] government, as well as being released by the government (as both minor improvements and whole new projects), and the government is receiving benefits from doing so. However, many in government are unaware of this." In short, it appears to find the glass half filled—or better—rather than half empty...

Report on the Global OpenMRS Community Meeting in Malawi - Towards Evidence Based Health Service Delivery and Interoperability

One hundred seventy five members of the worldwide OpenMRS community–representing 20 countries–met in Malawi this past December for the 2017 OpenMRS Implementers’ Conference. This event was the second consecutive year a national government sponsored this global meetup, with Uganda hosting and sponsoring this meeting the previous year. The December conference was hosted by Malawi’s Ministry of Health and key-noted by ministry officials and leaders such Maganizo Monawe, Senior HIS Technical Advisor; and Anthony Muyepa, Director General at National Commission for Science and Technology.

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Report Urges Feds To Push Open-Source Solutions

Joseph Conn | ModernHealthcare.com | July 11, 2013

While there have been successes and failures in the deployment of open-source health information technology by federally supported safety net healthcare organizations, the federal government could and should do more to ensure more frequent successes, according to an HHS-funded report. Read More »

Report: DoD Must Choose Open-Source EHR

Ashley Gold | Politico | February 12, 2015

To fix its health care system the military needs to acquire an open-source electronic health records system, adopt value-based care and give vets and active duty soldiers access to their medical records, according to a report issued Thursday by the Center for a New American Security. The high share of the Pentagon budget — about 10 percent — that goes to healthcare will damage national security unless it can be reduced, concludes the report by Gen. Hugh Shelton, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Stephen Ondra, formerly of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Peter Levin, the Dept. of Veterans Affairs’ former chief information officer.

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Researcher Argues For Open Hardware To Defend Against NSA Spying

Antone Gonsalves | CSO | October 10, 2013

While there is no foolproof defense against government spying, snooping by entities like the National Security Agency could be made far more difficult through the use of Internet infrastructure built on open-source hardware, an academic researcher says. Read More »

Researchers At Carnegie Mellon University Use Open Source 3D Printers To Rebuild Damaged Hearts

Press Release | Carnegie Mellon University | October 23, 2015

As of this month, over 4,000 Americans are on the waiting list to receive a heart transplant. With failing hearts, these patients have no other options; heart tissue, unlike other parts of the body, is unable to heal itself once it is damaged. Fortunately, recent work by a group at Carnegie Mellon could one day lead to a world in which transplants are no longer necessary to repair damaged organs. "We've been able to take MRI images of coronary arteries and 3-D images of embryonic hearts and 3-D bioprint them with unprecedented resolution and quality out of very soft materials like collagens, alginates and fibrins," said Adam Feinberg, an associate professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

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Researchers Write Languages To Design Synthetic Living Systems Useful For New Products, Health Care

Emily Kale | Virginia Tech (VT) | March 13, 2014

Researchers at Virginia Tech and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have used a computer-aided design tool to create genetic languages to guide the design of biological systems.

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Rethinking Open Source Collaboration

The open source world has been through a significant period of change in the last fifteen years. What started out as volunteers getting together to work on projects for fun has now turned into a billion-dollar industry. Although the spotlight is shone on open source more than ever before and the technology and tools have evolved, the core fundamentals of how we build open source software are still the same at their core – yet the rigor and quality expectations have changed. I think this is a great opportunity for our wider community as well as an organization.

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RFP-EZ Delivers Early Value

Frank Konkel | FCW | May 29, 2013

RFP-EZ has been touted as a faster, easier way for tech companies to compete for the federal government's IT contracts, and now data suggests the pilot program also has the potential to save big taxpayer dollars. Read More »

Rice U. Lab Creates Open-Source Optogenetics Hardware, Software

Press Release | Rice University | November 7, 2016

Nobody likes a cheater, but Rice University bioengineering graduate student Karl Gerhardt wants people to copy his answers. That’s the whole point. Gerhardt and Rice colleagues have created the first low-cost, easy-to-use optogenetics hardware platform that biologists who have little or no training in engineering or software design can use to incorporate optogenetics testing in their labs. Rice’s Light Plate Apparatus (LPA) is described in a paper available for free online this week in the open-access journal Scientific Reports...

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Riled Up By Elsevier’s Take-Downs? Time To Embrace Open Access

Alex O. Holcombe | The Conversation | December 12, 2013

The publishing giant Elsevier owns much of the world’s academic knowledge, in the form of article copyright. In the past few weeks it has stepped up enforcement of its property rights, issuing “take-down notices” to Academia.edu, where many researchers post PDFs of their articles. Read More »

Ripple Foundation Launches EtherCIS To The World Of Healthcare

Press Release | Ripple Foundation | July 27, 2017

The world of healthcare can now begin to leverage the power and potential of the EtherCIS Clinical Data Repository. EtherCIS development has been supported by the non profit Ripple Foundation and this leading technology now provides the key foundation of its “showcase stack” and work towards an open platform in healthcare.  EtherCIS development is led by Christian Chevalley of ADOC Software Development and the EtherCIS technology is now the leading open source implementation of the openEHR standard in action (including AQL support). The openEHR standard has been adopted and implemented across healthcare systems throughout the world, representing the future of health IT. Read More »

RiRL Selects OpenClinica’s eClinical System To Guide Real-Life Research

Press Release | Research in Real-Life , OpenClinica | March 26, 2014

OpenClinica, LLC announces that Research in Real-Life (RiRL) has selected the OpenClinica Enterprise Edition electronic data capture (EDC) and clinical data management system (CDMS) to support a wide range of clinical research, ranging from medical device, interventional, and investigator lead studies.

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