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VA Requests Community Input on VistA 4 Product Architecture
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has asked OSEHRA to obtain comments from the open source community on the newly-updated VistA 4 Product Architecture Document (attached). All members of the community are encouraged to review and comment on this critical document.
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Halamka Explains Background to athenahealth/BIDMC Collaboration
BIDMC and athenahealth announced a new and unique collaboration. The collaboration between the two organizations provides athenahealth the chance to take BIDMC’s experience to a much larger audience, hopefully making a difference to providers, patients, and payers across the country. athenahealth will also accelerate its ability to develop expanded functionality more rapidly than doing it alone. Read More »
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The Future of Devices for Health is not Wearables
Dozens of new self-tracking wearable devices appear every month. They target health and quality of life applications, from sleep to physical activity. And, they are packaged as smart watches or as standalone pieces, launched under the umbrella of startups and industry leaders alike. Currently, there is no shortage of thoughtfully designed wearable devices promising to improve our health and quality of life, but amidst the ongoing technological deluge—do you think the future will be wearable or anti-wearable?...
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American Medical Association’s Problem with the Lack of EHR Usability
Earlier this week Joe Conn, reporter for Modern Healthcare, broke the story that the American Medical Association (AMA) and 34 other medical specialty societies and organizations had sent a 9-page scathing letter to the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) demanding a major overhaul of the government’s electronic health record (EHR) policies. According to Conn...
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Google Joins VistA Team Proposing Open Source EHR for the Department of Defense
Google has thrown its hat into the EHR ring by joining the team led by PwC which is proposing that the Department of Defense (DoD) upgrade their current EHR to Defense Operational Readiness Health System (DORHS), a customized application built for the DoD and based on VistA, the open source EHR developed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)...Google’s participation has enormous implications for both the DoD’s EHR and to the healthcare industry as a whole. By choosing the open source EHR team, Google...has sent a clear message to the world that VistA is the best option for the DoD.
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The Experience of Interoperability Thus Far
As I travel across the country and listen to CIOs struggling with mandates from Meaningful Use to ICD-10 to the HIPAA Omnibus rule to the Affordable Care Act, I'm always looking for ways to reduce the burden on IT leaders. All have expressed frustration with the health information exchange (HIE) policies and technologies for care coordination. quality measurement, and patient engagement. As a country, what can we do to reduce this anxiety? Read More »
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ONC Must End Opposition to Behavioral Health EHRs
Because our policy makers in Washington, DC, wield words as weapons, the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health IT has categorized behavioral health providers as “post-acute care,” thus excluding them from MU funding that has driven EHR adoption elsewhere. While the ONC has created one reality by lobbing definitions, behavioral health advocates are promoting THE reality of mental illness as acute and costly; as debilitating as any disease or condition, if not more so; and as a major co-morbidity factor exacerbating acute illnesses and driving up health care costs. Read More »
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How can an Electronic Health Solution help Physicians Keep their Doors Open
In my previous article I started to address the unenviable position that physicians in the United States find themselves, in and how open source solutions can help them keep their doors open. In this article we will address some of the additional business challenges that physician offices and clinics face, and how the Electronic Health Solution (EHS) that we just released can help give them the tools and flexibility to both care for their patients and run a sustainable practice.
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On the Lack of Good Medical Evidence for the New $100,000 Hepatitis C Drug Treatments
As we wrote, most recently last week, the hepatitis C screening and treatment bandwagon keeps rolling along. There is constant public argument whether about the prices of treatment regimens, which approach $100,000 per patient in the US...However, starting in March, 2014, we have posted about the lack of good evidence from clinical research suggesting these drugs are in fact so wondrous...
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Top 10 FOSS Legal Developments of 2014
The year 2014 continued the trend of the increasing importance of legal issues for the FOSS community. Continuing the tradition of looking back over the top ten legal developments in FOSS, my selection of the top ten issues for 2014 is as follows...
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