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Groen's HIT Blog

Blog written by Peter Groen, Senior OHN Editor & Contributing Author, on 'open source' & health information technology (HIT) issues and solutions.

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Electronic Medical Records for Cruise Ship Passengers

When I was on my last cruise, I started wondering if cruise ships have ever considered using some form of electronic medical record (EMR) system. It could come in very handy, especially the next time there is a disaster at sea – e.g. sinking ship, fire on board, breakdown at sea, an outbreak of disease, or... Not that that would ever happen. Cruise ships have been in the news a lot lately – and most of the news has not been good. That's too bad because I love cruising. I've been on multiple Carnival cruise line trips to the Caribbean and to the Mediterranean and have enjoyed them all. My latest cruise was a 2-week voyage on a Princess line cruise ship from Miami, through the Panama Canal, to Los Angeles. It was great. Read More »

Posted May 30, 2013 - 2:49pm by Peter Groen

Environmental Exposure & EHR Systems

Introduction

There is growing evidence among scientists and the public about possible health risks associated with exposure to occupational or environmental hazards. There may be short term or long term consequences to people who have been exposed to radiation, chemicals, asbestos, pollution, electro-magnetic transmissions, and hazardous waste.  We need to better understand the impact of environmental exposure on children and adults with regards to autism, asthma, cancers, diabetes, obesity, and so many other conditions and diseases. The time has come to more systematically capture data on exposure to occupational and environmental hazards in electronic health record (EHR) and personal health record (PHR) systems. Read More »

Posted April 11, 2011 - 8:39am by Peter Groen

European Union (EU) Joinup Web Site

I have been following Gijs Hillenius for the past year on several social media and news sites. He is a journalist with over 25 years of experience and is currently the news editor of the Open Source Repository & Observatory (OSOR). The focus of many of his posts is on the use of open source and open standards by national, regional, and local governments across the European Union (EU). Read More »

Posted September 20, 2013 - 9:37am by Peter Groen

European Union eHealth Task Force Report

The European Union eHealth Task Force just released a report entitled "Redesigning Health in Europe for 2020".   This is an excellent and concise report on changes the EU nations need to make to radically improve the way these countries and their citizens manage and receive health care. The report focuses on how to achieve a vision of affordable, less intrusive and more personalized care. Their vision calls on the use of Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) and 'open' access to healthcare data to increase the quality of life and improve mortality rates for its citizens.

Read More »

Posted May 21, 2012 - 2:13pm by Peter Groen

Exascale Computing & Open Source Solutions

Have you been paying attention to the topic of Exascale Computing? Perhaps you should. Congress recently provided funding to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop a new class of supercomputers capable of a quintillion [billion billion] FLoating Point Operations per Second (FLOPS) needed to model nuclear weapons explosions Read More »

Posted March 17, 2014 - 2:15pm by Peter Groen

FOSS in the 21st Century

The use of Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) solutions by health care providers and organizations is an increasingly important trend today. The number of FOSS solutions currently available has grown to be quite substantial. The number of new FOSS health care solutions under development is equally impressive.

Read More »
Posted September 15, 2010 - 10:04am by Peter Groen

Further defining 'Free' and/or 'Open Source' Software

The battle continues over the correct definitions of 'Free' and/or 'Open Source' Software (FOSS). For many readers who don't follow this issue closely, it's time to take another look at the subject.

According to the GNU organization and the Free Software Foundation (FSF),  'Free' Software is not about price – it's about liberty and freedom.. Read More »

Posted August 15, 2013 - 11:26am by Peter Groen

Genomic Information, EHR Systems, & Open Source

Next generation electronic medical record (EMR) will contain genomic information modules and provide predictive care capabilities supporting the continued movement towards more personalized medicine. Much of the work on genomic information systems being done involves extensive collaboration between public and private sector organizations with a heavy emphasis on standards and 'open source' solutions.

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Posted October 7, 2011 - 10:07am by Peter Groen

Global Health & Health IT Solutions in 2040

It's time. Let's revisit and discuss "Health IT solutions for 2040." Our attention has been intensely focused on EHR, PHR, HIE, and mHealth solutions that will be put inplace by 2020. But, those efforts are now well underway. Read More »

Posted June 29, 2013 - 10:00am by Peter Groen

Grid Computing & 'Open' Health Grids

Grid computing provides the ability to perform higher throughput computing by taking advantage of many networked computers to form the equivalent of a virtual 'super computer'. Grid computing utilizes the unused capacity of many separate computers connected by a network to solve large-scale computational problems. With grid computing, organizations can collaborate and pool both internal and trusted external computer resources to tackle projects that require an extremely large capacity of computing power.

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Posted October 2, 2011 - 12:10pm by Peter Groen

Growing Examples of 'Open Access' in Healthcare

Open Access can be defined as the practice of providing unrestricted access to journal articles, books, and other literature via the Internet. These materials are generally made available to researchers and other readers at no cost, free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.

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Posted March 5, 2012 - 1:28pm by Peter Groen

Have you tried a MicroPC-on-a-Stick?

Do you call it a Miniature PC, MiniPC, MicroPC, Matchbox PC, NetTop PC, or what? My favorite is MicroPC-on-a-Stick. Whatever popular name finally sticks, the MicroPC is starting to slowly make its mark. Read More »

Posted October 27, 2013 - 10:27pm by Peter Groen

Hawaii and Open Health IT Solutions

Over the years, Hawaii has given rise to a number of individuals and organizations that have played a key role in collaboratively developing and implementing innovative ‘open’ health IT initiatives. I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge them. Read More »

Posted February 24, 2011 - 2:50am by Peter Groen

Health Classes in Today's Schools

Do you remember taking health class in junior high or high school? I remember it vaguely A series of very boring classes with lessons about the food pyramid and some other stuff that I really can't recall. I'm not sure I ever did anything with what I was taught. Read More »

Posted August 20, 2012 - 11:06pm by Peter Groen

Health eGames

The worldwide video gaming industry is a thriving business – with hardware and software sales reaching $43.5 billion in 2007 and projected to grow to more than $61 billion in the next 4 years, according to eFuturist, Doug Goldstein - See http://www.iconecto.com
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Posted September 18, 2010 - 12:16pm by Peter Groen