News Clips

Making Community Health Information as Useful as Weather Data

Alex Howard | O'Reilly Radar | June 2, 2010

The chief technology office of Health and Human Services, Todd Park, is fond of using the National Ocean and Oceanographic Association (NOAA) as a metaphor for the innovation that may be unlocked through releasing public data. NOAA data underpins Weather.com and nearly every commercial meteorological service in the United States. Read More »

Mobile Phones And Economic Development In Africa

Jenny C. Aker and Isaac M. Mbiti | Journal of Economic Perspectives (JEP) | June 1, 2010

Sub-Saharan Africa has some of the lowest levels of infrastructure investment in the world. [...] Yet access to and use of mobile telephony in sub-Saharan Africa has increased dramatically over the past decade. Read More »

Senator Sanders Introduces Medical Innovation Prize Bills

Mike Masnick | Tech Dirt | June 1, 2010

Senator Bernie Saners has now introduced two bills that would create potentially giant funds for [...] an innovation prize system, where the government sets aside large sums of cash as a reward for those who create a drug-based cure for certain issues.

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VA Names Winning Ideas for IT Improvements

Joseph Conn | Modern Healthcare | June 1, 2010

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki announced May 28 the 26 winning entries of an in-house competition held by the VA's Office of Information & Technology to come up with innovative ideas for using IT to improve services to veterans.

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Open Source Systems Lure Drug Developers

George Miller | FierceBiotechIT | May 28, 2010

The gradual spread of software automation in drug development may be getting a boost from open source systems. 

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VA Announces Winners of Health Information Technology Initiative

Press Release | US Department of Veterans Affairs | May 28, 2010

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki announced today the selection of 26 winning ideas in the Veterans Health Administration / Office of Information and Technology (VHA/OIT) Innovation Competition.

This is the most recent effort under the VA Innovation Initiative, a department-wide program that brings the most promising innovations to VA’s most important challenges by involving employees and the private sector in the creation of visionary solutions in service to Veterans.

Guadalupe County Hospital Selects Phoenix Health System’s Total IT Solution and Medsphere’s OpenVista

Press Release | Medsphere, Guadalupe County Hospital, Phoenix Health Systems | May 27, 2010

Phoenix IT outsourcing combined with Medsphere’s open-source EHR solution will help 10-bed New Mexico hospital improve patient care and safety, control costs, qualify for federal stimulus funds Read More »

Glaxo Tries a Linux Approach

Robert A. Guth | Wall Street Journal | May 26, 2010

A decade ago, the Linux operating system helped spark a revolution in how software is developed. A move by GlaxoSmithKline PLC could test how well similar open-source principles work for developing new drugs. The pharmaceutical giant last week opened to the public the designs behind 13,500 chemical compounds that it said may be capable of inhibiting the parasite that causes malaria.

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A New Model for Public Sector Open Source Adoption Using Drupal

Jeff Walpole | GovFresh | May 25, 2010

The debate over whether (OSS) is good for government is over. A close look will reveal the discussion has moved on to one of two things: 1) the necessary, but subsequent implementation questions to be sorted out – security, regulation, procurement, etc. or 2) organizational confusion about how to take the first step. In either case, the precedent of value has been established both within government and elsewhere to allow us to now move on to the natural next set of issues.

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Ken Banks, Mobile Technology Innovator

Boyd Matson | FrontlineSMS | May 19, 2010

...Banks returned from the field with this knowledge: Grassroots nonprofit organizations lack money, technical savvy, expensive hardware, reliable electricity, and Internet access. What do they have? Cell phones that can be used virtually anywhere. Understanding these realities, Banks created FrontlineSMS. “I wrote the software in five weeks at a kitchen table,” he says. “I made it a generic communications platform that could be used for almost anything, and I made it free.”

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Open Source Software Tapped for Large, Long-Term Heart Study

George Miller | FierceBiotechIT | May 15, 2010

OpenClinica Enterprise will be the electronic data capture and clinical data management solution for the Abuja heart study, a long-term effort involving as many as 10,000 patients from multiple sites across Nigeria.

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OpenClinica CRF Library Now Available!

Press Release | OpenClinica, Akaza Researcher | May 14, 2010

Akaza Research announces the availability of the OpenClinica Case Report Form (CRF) Library. The CRF Library is a web-based resource that helps OpenClinica users find, share, and re-use case report forms.

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Medsphere’s OVID Makes VistA-derived Solutions Java-ready

Press Release | Medsphere | May 12, 2010

New white paper shows how OpenVista Interface Domain preserves power and stability of proven ‘M’ code, and provides Java platform on which software developers can build OpenVista EHR enhancements, mobile healthcare apps and more Read More »

Group Recommends Upgrading VA Health System with Open Source

Bob Brewin | NextGov | May 6, 2010

A blue-chip information technology industry recommended the Veterans Affairs Department reengineer its decade-old electronic health record system based on open source models and offered as the international standard for hospitals.  The recommendations have implications for the Obama administration's push for a national network for health records, which faces a roadblock of incompatible systems nationwide. Open source theoretically could provide a solution. Read More »

San Diego Students Team with Carlsbad-based Open-source EHR Leader to Plan eHealth Records Implementation for Community Clinic

Press Release | Medsphere, UCSD Extension | May 6, 2010

SDWP-funded UC San Diego Extension program uses Medsphere’s OpenVista solution to prepare extension program students for careers in growing health IT field Read More »