Peace Corps

See the following -

Computer Training Seminar Opens Doors For Tanzanian Community

Press Release | Peace Corps/Tanzania, Peace Corps | October 18, 2013

Peace Corps volunteer Elizabeth Crompton of Woodstock, Ga., is opening doors to job opportunities for university students and local community members in Tanzania. Together with local faculty, Crompton recently led a seminar on how to operate, navigate and program computer systems using a free, open source computer operating system that is accessible in developing countries like Tanzania [...]. Read More »

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma Draw the Line - Time for the US to Embrace Open Source Emergency and Disaster Response

For nearly 20 years now the global open source community and applications have been a keystone to disaster relief efforts around the world. The enormous number of disaster relief applications and knowledge that has been developed through all these years, should, and needs to be leveraged in the current crisis. For that reason, Open Health News is starting a series of articles to highlight some of the most important solutions. A substantial portion the open source applications for emergency and disaster response that exist are actually already on the news website in the form of articles and resource pages.

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Inside Obama's Stealth Startup

Jon Gertner | Fast Company | June 15, 2015

The new hub of Washington’s tech insurgency is something known as the U.S. Digital Service, which is headquartered in a stately brick townhouse half a block from the White House. USDS -employees tend to congregate with their laptops at a long table at the back half of the parlor floor. If there’s no room, they retreat downstairs to a low-ceilinged basement, sprawling on cushioned chairs. Apart from an air-hockey table, there aren’t many physical reminders of West Coast startup culture—a lot of the new techies are issued BlackBerrys, which seems to cause them near-physical pain...

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Is the Grace Hopper Open Source Day 2015 a Turning Point for Open Health and Humanitarian Open Source Projects?

One of the most significant efforts to help open health and humanitarian open source apps seen to date will be taking place tomorrow in Houston, Texas. The event is the Open Source Day 2015, part of the annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) a conference designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. The full-day Code-A-Thon is focused on “coding for humanitarian causes in a dynamic, collaborative environment.” This day will give “women from around the world the chance to learn how to contribute to the open source community, regardless of their skill or experience level.”

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Largest Email Group for Women in Tech Teams Up with Peace Corps

Systers is the world's largest email community of women in tech. First a little history, from Anita Borg.org: Systers was founded by in 1987 as an email mailing list for women in "systems." At last official count, the community has over 5,500 members from at least 60 countries. Women technologists of all ages and at any stage of their studies or careers are welcome to contact the current Systers-keeper, Rose Robinson. In this interview Rose Robinson talks with me about Systers' participation in the Open Source Day Codeathon taking place at the Grace Hopper Conference (GHC) in Houston, Texas this year—where attendence will hit record numbers. (You can still register!) Systers is one of a group of participating organizations during the codeathon...

LibreHealth

LibreHealth is an independent self-governing free & open source software community founded by leading members of the OpenMRS & OpenEMR projects. It builds on a decade of dedication and hard work by contributors to those earlier projects and was created to expand the communities’ impact to all types of Health IT, leveraging its values of active user engagement & radically open transparency. Participation in the LibreHealth community is open to all individuals who support our core values and contribute to our activities.

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Mosquitoes and Malaria: Taking a Big Step Against a Small but Deadly Foe

Shaun Donovan | White House Blog | February 22, 2016

If you’ve ever swatted away a mosquito on a muggy summer night, then you know how annoying these winged pests can be. But in many parts of the world, mosquitos are not just irritating—they’re deadly. Malaria, which is transmitted by mosquitos, took the lives of 438,000 people worldwide last year. More than 3 billion people remain at risk of contracting this horrific disease, which is especially dangerous for pregnant mothers and young people...

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Navigating the Challenges of International Teamwork

I started my open source work from Oregon, USA working on a project in the "Republic" of Texas. While that, at first glance, does not sound international in nature, I can assure you that Oregon and Texas might as well be different countries. I experienced both the joy and frustration of working with users from both places that had big cultural differences, as well as overlapping needs. This early experience laid the groundwork for the future, where I got to work at the international level on OpenEMR, an electronic healthcare records system...

Open Source Day at Grace Hopper 2015

The 2015 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) started out like any other, with a giant room filled with thousands of women with a passion for technology and computing. This year's welcome keynote opened with green lights strobing over a dark room. What a way to highlight the rows and rows of women ready to learn, connect, and join new communities. Telle Whitney, founder of GHC, was first to the podium and offered a heartfelt and sincere welcome message that brought a tear to my eye. She spoke of the women who built GHC from their vision of a better future, where women and men take equal part in technology, and of her diagnosis of an auto immune disease. But she's doing well she says, and thanked everyone for their thoughts and concern...

OpenEMR Consortium Proposes Open Source EHR Solution to U.S. Coast Guard

Press Release | OpenEMR Consortium | June 14, 2017

According to a recent Request for Information from the United States Coast Guard (USCG), the maritime branch of the U.S. Armed Forces is conducting market research of sources capable of providing a computerized, integrated Electronic Health Record solution for replacement of the USCG manual paper health records at 114 ashore sites (clinics and sick bays) and 62 afloat sick bays. The requested scope of the EHR by USCG is broad and includes primary care, urgent care, counseling, occupational health, and dental care.

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OpenMRS & OpenEMR Community Members Join Forces - Announce LibreHealth

Press Release | LibreHealth | November 10, 2016

Senior contributors and leaders from OpenMRS & OpenEMR, the two leading open source Health IT platforms, have announced the formation of LibreHealth, a new initiative to expand on many years of work by those communities’ volunteers through increased focused on needs of its users in critical areas. After many years of growth under the sponsorship of organizations OEMR & OpenMRS Inc., key members of the two communities have joined forces to launch a successor free & open source software community to fulfill their vision of improved health outcomes around the world.

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Peace Corps plans EHR system in 2013

Mary Mosquera | Government Health IT | February 3, 2012

The Peace Corps plans to acquire a comprehensive electronic health records system to serve its volunteers stationed in 77 developing countries. The agency wants to develop a proof of concept electronic health record (EHR) and test  However, the Peace Corps faces challenges in establishing an EHR that can reach all its volunteer posts.

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Peace Corps to Implement EHRs

Marla Durben Hirsch | FierceEMR | February 8, 2012

The Peace Corps has announced plans to implement EHRs this year--in 77 developing countries. The organization issued a Request for Information (RFI) last month to solicit comment from EHR vendors who are interested in helping it launch an EHR system to conduct medical screenings for its recruits and volunteers. 

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Plans in the Making for Peace Corps EHR

Mary Mosquera | Healthcare IT News | February 6, 2012

The Peace Corps plans to acquire a comprehensive electronic health records system to serve its volunteers stationed in 77 developing countries. The agency wants to develop a proof of concept electronic health record (EHR) and test it in a limited pilot by September and deploy it in fiscal 2013.

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The Growing OpenEMR Business Community

The OpenEMR community has been very active over this past year.  This 'open source' electronic medical record (EMR) system continues to be enhanced by developers around the globe, the number of healthcare providers that have installed and begun using the system (over 15,000 sites world-wide) continues to grow, and a fairly robust business community of companies offering services and support is now in place. Read More »