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Halamka: A Time of Great Turmoil in Healthcare IT Policy Making
We are in a time of great turmoil in healthcare IT policy making. We have the CMS and ONC Notices of Proposed Rulemaking for Meaningful Use Stage 3, both of which need to be radically pared down. We have the Burgess Bill which attempts to fix interoperability with the blunt instrument of legislation. Most importantly we have the 21st Century Cures Act, which few want to publicly criticize. I’m happy to serve as the lightening rod for this discussion, pointing out the assumptions that are unlikely to be helpful and most likely to be hurtful. Read More »
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Behavioral Health Hospitals: We need EHRs, but incentives would help.
Acute care hospitals have demonstrated what happens when you pay people—when you incentivize them—to do something...statistical and anecdotal data suggest that behavioral health hospitals are moving in the same direction as acute care, just not as quickly. A growing demand for EHRs and integrated care is tied to an expanded patient pool enabled by Mental Health Parity legislation and the Affordable Care Act, among other factors.
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International Society Calls for Healthcare Projects to Collaborate using Open Source
Software projects in health care would benefit from increased collaboration, using open source, exchanging know-how and open documentation, say experts from IsfTeH, International Society for Telemedicine and eHealth. “Most important is the sharing of best practices, but reusing common software components also reduces costs”, the experts say. “There are excellent tools and projects in the domain of Free/Libre Open Source Software for Health Care”, the experts say, “but their impact so far is limited. That would change if they banded together to form an ecosystem.”
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CORAnet Solutions Champions Patients’ Medical Record Access with Its Personal Health Information Exchange
It has been six years since the HITECH Act passed, yet most Americans seeking medical care are still unable to obtain their full medical records for a variety of reasons whether the hospital will not release them or proprietary EHR system vendors will not allow hospitals, let alone patients, direct access. One Healthcare 2.0 leader, CORAnet Solutions, has developed a tool that finally allows patients access to their complete medical records. This new breakthrough technology enables patients to take control of their personal medical data with CORAnet’s Personal Health Information Exchange (PHIE).
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IBIS: A Powerful, Drupal-based Biosurveillance System
I'm very excited about Joshua Lee's talk on the Drupal-powered International Biosecurity Intelligence System (IBIS) at DrupalCon 2015. Though I'm no biosecurity expert, the aggregation methods and process workflow for gathering biosecurity information is relevant to many industries. In his talk, the technology for creating this data aggregation system will be covered, as well as how the Drupal community can both benefit and contribute to this project...
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The Patient Is Mentally Ill. Why Are We Only Treating His Broken Hand?
Nationwide, the patchwork nature of mental health care—most mental health hospitals lack electronic health records (EHRs)—drives up overall health care costs primarily through expensive emergency department (ED) visits by people who present with apparent mental health challenges. Of course, the disparity between mental and acute health care in the United States is caused by far more than a lack of EHRs in behavioral health settings. But more information enables better care and helps control costs, making it a necessary component in reforming the health care system.
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Halamka's Report on The April 2015 HIT Standards Committee Meeting
The April 2015 HITSC meeting focused on the Certification Rule NPRM and a comprehensive review of the Federal Interoperability Roadmap. I suggested that a guiding principle for the committee’s work is to emphasize the enablers in the proposals while reducing those aspects that create substantial burden/slow innovation. As a federal advisory committee our job is to temper regulatory ambition with operational reality.
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Dutch Parliament: Vendor Dependence Too High a Cost
The Dutch government’s lack of vendor independence is too high a cost for society, the Dutch Parliament concludes. The government should enforce its policy on open standards in ICT procurement and should also devise exit strategies - to reduce its dependence on ICT suppliers. This week Tuesday, the parliament adopted a resolution criticizing the government for having no open source ambition. The resolution was adopted with 136 votes in favour and 14 against. The parliament calls upon the government to make sure that in any new ICT project, the specifications give open source a fair chance. When proprietary software is selected, this needs to be explained, the parliament stipulates. “(the) dependence on a limited number of large software vendors (is) too strong”, the resolutions says, adding that this can lead to software costs that are too high for society.
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6 Reasons People with Disabilities Should Use Linux
Often, when issues of accessibility and assistive technology are brought up among people with disabilities, the topics center around the usual issues: How can I afford this device? Is it available for me? Will it meet my needs? How will I receive support? Open source solutions, including any Linux-based operating system, are rarely, if ever, considered. The problem isn't with the solution; instead, it is a result of lack of information and awareness of FOSS and GNU/Linux in the disability community, and even among people in general. Here are six solid reasons people with disabilities should consider using Linux...
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Open Human Augmentation Focus of Penguicon 2015 Conference
The Penguicon 2015 theme is human augmentation. The lines between science fiction and reality are growing thinner because of bright minds and innovators who focus on improving people’s lives. For instance, prosthetics that once cost thousands of dollars can be now printed with open source designs for less than a lunch for four at a decent restaurant. We’re even controlling them with impulses from our brains! People are either wearing devices that make them more powerful, efficient, or aware—or implanting tech directly into their bodies. As we become more like machines, we’ll explore some of those emerging technologies and talk to people who are actively developing them, like e-NABLE...
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