News Clips
VA Blue Button Moves Ahead With Vets Health Records
The Blue Button is a way for a vet to download their personal health record, maybe to bring to a doctor or clinic. Blue Button draws mostly on data entered by the vet, but also has a connection to health information from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
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Sending Health Data Safely and Securely Over the Internet
Yesterday marked another milestone on the Nation’s journey to better health care through the use of electronic health records and health information technology. Two pilot projects were launched—one in Minnesota and the other in Rhode Island—for easily and securely transmitting personal health information via the Internet. Read More »
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CIO at HIMSS: John Halamka's Hot Spots
Where’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CIO John Halamka going to spend his time at HIMSS11 in Orlando? He’ll be heading to the Interoperability Showcase, Halamka, co-chair of the HIT Standards Committee, told Health Data Management. “I’ve heard that ONC will take up a good portion of space in the Interoperability Showcase and the Direct Project will be demonstrated in the Live Exchange area.” Read More »
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Will Reading Your Doctor's Notes Make You Healthier?
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) now allows patients access to their medical records, but few patients...have ever lain eyes on their records. And those who try commonly face bureaucratic obstacles and exorbitant copying fees.
One doctor thought that openly inviting patients to review these records could better engage patients, and increase their understanding of health and treatment regimens. So he decided to find out for sure.
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Feds Eye Open Source Model for Medical Data Systems
On a mission to modernize, the US government is eyeing an Internet-based healthcare system for easy sharing of health related data between doctors, medical institutions and patients. As part of this initiative, the government hopes to move all medical records onlinewhere doctors can quickly and securely access them. Read More »
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A Real Healthcare Reform: Data
As the vote in the Senate to repeal the healthcare reform law failed today, Silicon Valley played host to a discussion on real innovation for our healthcare system, the powerful potential of data to radically change the way healthcare is delivered. Read More »
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U.S. Tries Open-Source Model for Health Data Systems
The government’s lofty vision of bringing health care into the computer age to improve care and curb costs will come to nothing, unless some mundane technical problems can be solved.
A basic challenge is for doctors, hospitals, patients and public health authorities to be able to easily and securely share information — things like a person’s vital signs, diagnosis, lab tests and drugs prescribed. A fancy electronic patient record, unconnected, is just an expensive way to capture data. Read More »
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Direct Project for Simplified HIE Goes Live
The Direct Project, an initiative of the Office of the National Coordinator to bring together industry stakeholders to develop standards for secure transmission of protected health information over the Internet, has launched two pilot programs with six other pilots soon to start.
The goal of Direct Project is to provide a simple, secure and scalable way to exchange data via the Internet with known and trusted recipients, as well as meet Stage 1 meaningful use criteria for data exchange. Read More »
PolitiFact: 'VA Blue Button' gives vets only some of their records
In October, the administration formally launched something called the "VA Blue Button," which allows veterans to download and view some medical information online. Primarily, it allows veterans to access self-entered health metrics such as blood pressure, weight and heart rate as well as emergency contact information, test results, family health history, military health history and other health-related information. Read More »
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Cancer Commons Aims to Crowdsource Medical Treatment
A California-based company is attempting to introduce expert crowdsourcing to oncology to try and ensure that each cancer patient gets the most appropriate treatment.
Cancer Commons brings together leading physicians and scientists in each type of cancer to create an open-source wiki-style database that will catalogue the different genomic subtypes of each disease and show how patients are responding to different treatments. Read More »
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In Silico Toxicology
Today my copy of In Silico Toxicology: Principles and Applications (Issues in Toxicology) arrived at the local Library. The book covers in 24 chapters the prediction of toxicological properties of small molecules, and extensively discusses aspects of QSAR studies.
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Organic Health Response/Inveneo: Using the Net to Fight AIDS in Kenya
The folks at Organic Health Response are doing really good stuff, using IT and environmental sustainability on Mfangano Island in Western Kenya to work against HIV/AIDS across Lake Victoria.
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Kitware's ActiViz .NET Tool is Now Free and Open Source
Kitware, a software service company that builds open-source platforms and develops advanced research solutions, today announced the release of the source code for ActiViz .NET under a BSD license.
The unique ActiViz .NET tool is used for generating C# wrappers around Kitware's Visualization Toolkit (VTK). VTK, which has been under development for more than 15 years, is an object-oriented C++ toolkit for advanced visualization and data processing used by thousands of researchers and software developers world-wide. Read More »
Physician Executives Should Not Ignore How Smartphones Will Transform Healthcare
Physician executives who ignore smartphones and their healthcare applications will miss the most important disruptive technology trend in the next five years. Physician executives who understand how smartphones will transform the industry for providers, payers, patients, and employers will thrive in their careers. Read More »
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DiagnosisOne Names Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer to Board of Directors
DiagnosisOne, the clinical decision support and analytics company, today announced the appointment of Kenneth W. Kizer, MD, MPH, to its board of directors. In this role, Dr. Kizer will provide strategic guidance on the growth, development and future direction of DiagnosisOne as it continues to bring innovative healthcare technologies to market.