Health IT

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OSEHRA Awarded VA Open Source Technical Support Contract

Press Release | OSEHRA, BITS | February 22, 2016

The Open Source Electronic Health Record Alliance (OSEHRA) is pleased to announce that it has been awarded the Open Source Technical Support and Working Group Services for VA VistA Contract by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The contract scope includes identifying and analyzing available open source software that fulfills VA requirements or enhances functionality, as well as support for Technical Working Groups through which VA can collaborate with the open source community.

OSEHRA Community Responds to the Federal Government's Proposed Open Source Policy

The OSEHRA community today submitted a response to the "Draft Open Source Policy for Federal Agencies" released by the White House on March 10. The policy was open for comments through today. This is a major milestone for the OSEHRA community as well as the open source community as a whole. Currently the US Government spends nearly a hundred billion dollars a year on software purchased from the private sector or procured from government contractors. Most of this software acquisition ends up in failure. President Barack Obama has made it a priority to shift technology acquisition policies to solve this problem and restore technology innovation by embracing open source.

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OSEHRA Community Responds to the VA's RFI for eHMP Agile Development Contract Strategy

In recent days, OSEHRA Community Members have enthusiastically collaborated to develop a response to VA’s Request for Information (RFI) for a contract strategy that is suitable for agile development of Enterprise Health Management Platform (eHMP). I would like to thank more than 50 members who contributed in developing the final document that OSEHRA submitted today on behalf of the community.  Many members participated in community discussions, shared documents, and provided great ideas. We hope that our response accurately presents the depth and breath of expertise and commitment to excellence that has been shown by the OSEHRA Community.

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OSEHRA Is On the Move

OSEHRA is on the Move. As we clear the hurdles of establishing Governance structure, clarifying Vision, implementing work Processes, and employing our IT Infrastructure and Development Tools, we simultaneously are preparing ourselves for the long run with the Open Source community. April 2012 was a busy month. We began the month by convening our first meeting of the OSEHRA Board of Directors; General (Retired) James Peake, Mr. Michael O’Neill and Dr. John Halamka. This inaugural Board meeting marks our official emergence as an independent organization with its own governing board. We will publish the meeting minutes on our web-site.

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OSEHRA Releases Enhanced ViViaN™ Visualization Toolset

Press Release | OSEHRA | April 19, 2018

OSEHRA is pleased to announce a new version of our ViViaN™ visualization toolset. OSEHRA’s VistA Cross Reference (DOX) pages have gotten a great deal of positive feedback from VistA users/developers inside and outside of VA. However, it didn’t capture some of the more obscure package dependencies, and there was no ability to export reports. VA needed both capabilities to assist with internal development efforts, and funded a set of enhanced capabilities. The new version not only directly addresses VA’s requirements, but will also benefit the entire community.

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OSEHRA to Launch Workgroup to Develop Strategy for Open Health Community

Major developments in open source health information technology are opening all kinds of opportunities for the members of the OSEHRA community. These developments include the open source strategy embraced by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to modernize the state Medicaid IT infrastructure, the rapid adoption of open source APIs, including Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), and the emergence of blockchain technology and middleware solutions to fix the interoperability crisis.

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OSEHRA's Synthetic Patient Data Project Group Releases End-to-End Open Source Patient Data Software Package

Press Release | OSEHRA, Perspecta, MITRE | July 1, 2019

OSEHRA's Synthetic Patient Data Open Source Project Group is proud to announce the release of their end-to-end open source patient data software package. Sponsored by Perspecta Inc., an OSEHRA Organizational Member, this group has worked for more than a year to make it possible for users to generate, visualize, and ingest synthetic patient data with a single command. "The lack of realistic clinical data that mimics the volume, velocity, and variety of real-world patient records has been an impediment to health IT development, testing, and simulation," said Bo Dagnall, chair of the Project Group and Chief Technologist and Strategist for Perspecta's Health Business Group. 

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Our Modern Toolkit: Free and Open Source Tools for Social Impact

Staff Writer | InSTEDD | March 14, 2012

At InSTEDD, we have been working to make the world a place where individuals, families and communities thrive, regardless of their geography, income levels or culture. We recognize that when dealing with issues around health, safety and development, there are many obstacles and challenges that we must overcome in order to make a meaningful social impact. Read More »

Pandemic Stresses National Need for Seamless Information Sharing Between Healthcare Providers, Black Book 2020 Interoperability Surveys

Press Release | Black Book Research | August 3, 2020

Two of three consumers revealed they will consider changing their physician and hospital providers in the coming year after learning how their health record was not shareable or available or was blocked in the past year...Five hundred and nine managers of frontline providers confirm the lack of general interoperability across the entire U.S. health care system has detracted from COVID-19 patient care, led to poor health outcomes and higher expenditures, and left population health data muddy and deficient...."Portability of data in the middle of this pandemic is vital," said Doug Brown, President of the survey organization Black Book Research. "But resolving systemic data blocking and platforms interfering with the exchange of patient data are not on the industry's front burner."

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Participants at Arab Health 2016 Show the Way for Health IT

Arab Health is the largest healthcare exhibition and medical congress in the Middle East, and arguably the second largest one in the world. It took place from January 25 to 28 at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). This conference attracted about 150,000 visitors from a region half a billion people call home: this covers Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco and a lot of other countries. Why all these people attend Arab Health? Let me give you a couple of examples... Read More »

Patients are Consumers, Too. Why a Portal Strategy Should Embrace Both

Patient engagement is easy, right? Just create a portal and tell patients it’s there. Of course, no one who puts a little thought into this idea believes it can be so simple. Healthcare isn’t “Field of Dreams,” after all. We can build it. They still might not come. But we still need to try and understand why, as this 2014 Health Affairs study found, the increased use of EHR technology has not created a parallel increase in electronic communication among patients and clinicians. In short, if patient portal use is an accurate indicator, how do we get patients engaged and hold their attention? One key issue might be that we’re not in agreement on what patient engagement is and what it is not.

Patients Take Control Of Their Medical Exam Records

Press Release | Radiological Society of North America | December 1, 2014

Patients value direct, independent access to their medical exams, according to a new study presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)...

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Peace Corps plans EHR system in 2013

Mary Mosquera | Government Health IT | February 3, 2012

The Peace Corps plans to acquire a comprehensive electronic health records system to serve its volunteers stationed in 77 developing countries. The agency wants to develop a proof of concept electronic health record (EHR) and test  However, the Peace Corps faces challenges in establishing an EHR that can reach all its volunteer posts.

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Physicians Eager but Unprepared to Meet Meaningful Use Requirements

Dan Bowman | Fierce Health IT | April 25, 2012

Although roughly half of physicians in a recent survey said they planned to apply to the Meaningful Use incentive program in 2011, few would have qualified for payments because their electronic health record systems would not have met enough of the Stage 1 core requirements, according to a study published this week in Health Affairs. Read More »

Pitching Medicaid IT in Silicon Valley

Andrew Slavitt | CMS Blog | May 25, 2016

Earlier this year, I announced a new effort to connect new, innovative companies and their investors to the state Medicaid program IT space. Since this announcement, I have been encouraged by the initial interest from companies that may not have otherwise ever thought about participating in this important health insurance program that covers more than 72 million Americans. That’s why I’m in Silicon Valley today to participate in a forum on bringing technological advances to Medicaid. The forum is convening states, innovative tech companies, and federal Medicaid officials on how to collaborate to improve the delivery of Medicaid health coverage in states.

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