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Interview with Andrej Verity on the Humanitarian.ID Crisis App
One of the most exciting parts of working in tech is seeing firsthand how it empowers people to solve previously indomitable problems. But the best solutions don’t just materialize on their own — they must be driven forward, often against major odds, by passionate individuals and organizations dedicated to making them a reality. Over the past year, we’ve had the honor of working with Andrej Verity of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), who is just such a person. We sat down to talk to him about Humanitarian.ID, the contact management application that transforms how responders coordinate during humanitarian disasters.
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Stop the Scam on Health Care Consumers and Open Up the Data
Remember the health insurance uproar in the 1980s and 1990s? We're about to get it again. Thirty years ago, the public had torches and pitchforks out because insurers were overriding their doctors with decisions made hundreds of miles away by bureaucrats. Currently, the controversy is over high deductibles and low caps on payments. Insurers and employers say the shift of health care payments to the patient will lead to a more discriminating use of the health care system--but patients know a scam when they see one. Clearly, we have to get health care costs under control. After a few years of cost relief (possibly caused by the recession, although I believe health care reforms helped), costs are spiking again. Consolidation makes things worse, and the promised cost savings of Accountable Care Organizations aren't showing up for most of them yet. So let's look at what consumers can't do, and what institutions need to do to fix our health care system.
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Memorial Sloan Kettering-Early Adopter of Drupal 8 Open Source CMS
At Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK), the world's oldest and largest private cancer center, our researchers and clinicians have pushed boundaries to generate new knowledge in patient care and cancer research for more than 130 years. This culture of innovation allows our scientists to continually develop new methods for treatment and work tirelessly to discover more effective strategies to prevent, control, and ultimately cure cancer...We chose to build with Drupal 8 for many reasons—which we explained at DrupalCon LA and I elaborated on the Phase2 blog—but when we set out, there was no guarantee that the platform would deliver on our goals. Drupal 8 was far from an official launch. But as with all bold pursuits at MSK, a little bit of uncertainty is a given. This mix of careful consideration, persistence, and unanswered questions is what drives progress, whether in the lab or on the web...
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Creating Beth Israel's FY16 Information Systems Strategic Plan
I recently wrote about the process of setting FY16 Clinical Information System Priorities for the next year. That project is proceeding well and in parallel I’ve created my own contribution. I do not want to influence the stakeholder consensus at all, but members of the IS Governance committee asked for my opinion. Here’s my thinking...Each year, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) Information Systems works with business owners to support BIDMC annual goals with information technology tactics. This ensures that the mission of BIDMC is supported by suitable operational tools. From 2012-2015, all hospitals in the US were compelled to focus their attention on Meaningful Use, ICD-10, the HIPAA Omnibus Rule, and the Affordable Care Act. Since those projects are nearly completed, it is important for BIDMC stakeholders to enumerate the new technology priorities which will best support their activities in the coming year. Read More »
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5 Open Source Natural Language Processing Tools
Open source is chock full of high-quality libraries to solve common problems in text processing like sentiment analysis, topic identification, automatic labeling of content, and more. More importantly, open source also provides many building block libraries that make it easy for you to innovate without having to reinvent the wheel. If all of this stuff is giving you flashbacks to your high school grammar classes, not to worry—we've included some useful resources at the end to brush up your knowledge as well as explain some of the key concepts around natural language processing (NLP). To begin your journey, check out these projects...
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Celebrating Generation Open – Open Data Institute Awards Network Thinkers Who Are Changing The World
On Thursday, July 9, the Open Data Institute (ODI) celebrated its second annual Open Data Awards, at Bloomberg London, celebrating a generation of network thinkers who are changing the world with open data. Awarded by ODI Co-founders, Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Nigel Shadbolt, 300 delegates convened to recognise today’s open data champions creating real world impact. From Kenya, Uruguay and Indonesia, to Brussels, Italy, and Ukraine, the ODI received over 500 nominations commending unsung heroes working with open data worldwide. Read More »
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On the Financial Conflicts of Interests of Medical Societies and Rising Drug Prices
The notion that health care prices are high and are rising continuously in the US should hardly be novel...We first posted about high drug prices in July, 2005, with the example of BilDil...But only a few days later we noted that three cancer costs had yearly costs in the five figures, and one, Erbitux, cost as much as $100,000. Most amazingly we noted that Thalidomid was priced at $25,000 a year...Since then, the ridiculously high prices of many tests and treatments, but most notably new drugs and devices, has been so widely covered, our discussion has been limited to special cases.,,
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Why Are We Ignoring The Role Of The Food Industry In Healthcare Reform?
The epidemic rise in the number of Americans young and old who are either overweight or obese account for 67% according to the NationalCenter for Health Statistics. The number of obese people has more than doubled since 1980. When you take into account the number of diseases like breast cancer, heart disease, diabetes and osteoarthritis to name a few that are linked to obesity it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the link between healthcare costs and obesity is strong, and changes can go a long way to both bringing down the costs and helping us live longer healthier lives.
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Rethink Data, Transform Healthcare - Unlocking The Value Of Health Data
We are all consumers of healthcare and therefore have a vested interest in its future. As an observation, being an outsider to this sector, the healthcare global system looks increasingly broken as the rate of change and complexity increases. At the same time, my empathy is with those people working inside the profession that provide high quality, compassionate healthcare, and support. But maybe more help is needed to handle the relentless challenges and changes at the edge. Read More »
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Ending Poverty: There's an Open Source App for That!
Rural Africa presents changemakers with intractable challenges across sectors, but one American investor, Grameen Foundation, believes it all comes down to access to information. Grameen Foundation has invested millions to develop mobile-phone applications that leapfrog over a lack of electricity, education, and income. Building on their legacy of leading-edge ideas, Grameen Foundation has evolved from funding microfinance to designing disruptive solutions to the kind of poverty that's most challenging to reach, in remote rural areas, and to the poorest of the poor. Since more people have access to cell phones than toilets in Africa, Grameen Foundation brings increased agricultural productivity, access to prenatal and infant healthcare, and a portfolio of financial services, to the poor--right into the palm of their hands.
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