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'Moral Bankruptcy of Capitalism': UK’s Top Public Doctor Shames Western Society Over Ebola

Staff Writer | RT News | August 3, 2014

Western countries should tackle drugs firms’ “scandalous” reluctance to invest in research into the virus which has already killed over 700 people in West Africa, the UK’s top public doctor said, adding, “They’d find a cure if Ebola came to London.” The pharmaceutical industry are reluctant to invest in research to produce treatments and vaccines “because the numbers involved are, in their terms, so small and don't justify the investment,” said Professor John Ashton, president of the UK Faculty of Public Health, an independent body for specialists in public health in the United Kingdom. Read More »

'Virtual Doctors' Helping Patients in Zambia

Sean Coughlan | BBC | June 22, 2016

The idea of a "virtual doctor" project might sound rather futuristic. But the inspiration for this scheme to improve health services in Zambia began in very low-tech and unhappy circumstances. Huw Jones, working in Zambia as a safari guide, was driving a Land Rover along a road in a remote part of the country. He saw a trail of blood in the road, and his first reaction was that it might have come from an animal killed by a lion. But he came across a couple on a bike - the man riding and the woman carried on the handlebars. She was pregnant and bleeding heavily and they had been cycling for hours with the aim of reaching the nearest hospital, almost 60 miles away...

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All Scientific Papers to Be Free by 2020 Under EU Proposals

Nadia Khomami | The Guardian | May 28, 2016

All publicly funded scientific papers published in Europe could be made free to access by 2020, under a “life-changing” reform ordered by the European Union’s science chief, Carlos Moedas. The Competitiveness Council, a gathering of ministers of science, innovation, trade and industry, agreed on the target following a two-day meeting in Brussels last week...

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All Scientific Papers to Be Free by 2020 Under EU Proposals

Nadia Khomami | The Guardian | May 28, 2016

All publicly funded scientific papers published in Europe could be made free to access by 2020, under a “life-changing” reform ordered by the European Union’s science chief, Carlos Moedas. The Competitiveness Council, a gathering of ministers of science, innovation, trade and industry, agreed on the target following a two-day meeting in Brussels last week. The move means publications of the results of research supported by public and public-private funds would be freely available to and reusable by anyone.

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Being smart about open source: 5 practical tips for government use

C. Thomas Tyler | GCN | September 25, 2015

There is much written about the pros and cons of using open source software, generally with more emphasis on the pros. Open source evangelists have even convinced foreign governments (India and the United Kingdom, to name a few) to go so far as mandating the use of open source software. To make smart decisions, however, government agencies must carefully consider the project in question.  Here are five tips for making sure important questions are not overlooked.

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Can Open Data Improve GPs' Take-up Of Innovations? [UK]

Kathleen Stokes | Healthcare Professionals Network | January 29, 2014

When we think about innovation, we tend to focus on creating and developing new ideas, tools and ways of doing things. While valuable, this alone it is not enough. To have impact, promising and proven innovations need to be explored and implemented. 

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Defining An Open Platform for Health IT

It is widely agreed that the future of digital health lies in an “Open Platform”. However, it’s not clear as to exactly what an Open Platform is or how we get there. This blog aims to answer the first question and to provide some guidance on the second. While any given instance of an Open Platform will be a specific implementation of a set of software components owned and operated by a particular organisation (this might be a health and social care organisation or a third party, operating the platform on behalf of a local health and care community), it is most usefully defined by a set of principles rather than the specific details of a particular implementation.

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Drug-resistant Superbugs Could Become Deadlier than Cancer

Ilene MacDonald | Fierce Healthcare | April 18, 2016

Superbugs are on track to kill 10 million people a year by 2050--more than those who die from cancer, warned UK Chancellor George Osborne, who urged for global and radical action to fight the threat from bacteria that have become resistant to antibiotics. These drug-resistant bugs are "an even greater threat to mankind than cancer," said Osborne, who was in the District of Columbia late last week during a meeting of the International Monetary Fund, The Guardian reported...

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Ebola Health Research Call

Press Release | ELRHA, Wellcome Trust, UK Department for International Development (DFID) | August 21, 2014

The current Ebola outbreak in West Africa has already claimed the lives of over 1000 people. Under-resourced health systems are struggling to cope, and the WHO recently declared the situation an international health emergency. In light of this, the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Wellcome Trust, and ELRHA have opened a special funding window through the Research for Health in Humanitarian Crises (R2HC) programme. Read More »

Good Things Can Come from Open Source Projects that Fail

Without realizing it, I joined the open source movement in 1999 during the midst of the Kosovo refugee crisis. I was part of a team helping route aid supplies to local humanitarian organizations running transit camps across Albania. These are the camps that refugees often arrived at first before being moved to larger, more formal camps. We found that refugees in the transit camps were not being registered or provided with any way of alerting family members of their whereabouts...

How Cyber Hardening Can Protect Patient Privacy And Treatment

The abundance of internet-connected devices that collect and share patient data has greatly increased the “attack surface” (where an attacker inserts or extracts data) and number of possible vulnerabilities within a system. Now that medical devices can connect to home-based routers, public Wi-Fi or cellular networks to relay data to hospitals, specialists, and care providers. In addition, the software in those devices lacks cybersecurity and can be updated and reprogrammed remotely. Thus, sensitive patient information is even more prone to data breaches, and the safety of the devices can be compromised. Recent supply chain compromises, and the migration of health applications and platforms to the cloud, also add to the threat equation. This article looks at why the medical community is so vulnerable and suggests how it can better protect life-saving equipment and sensitive data from unprecedented cyberattacks.

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IBM & Ponemon Institute Study: Data Breach Costs Rising, Now $4 million per Incident

Press Release | IBM Security, Ponemon Institute | June 15, 2016

IBM Security today announced the results of a global study analyzing the financial impact of data breaches to a company's bottom line. Sponsored by IBM and conducted by the Ponemon Institute, the study found that the average cost of a data breach for companies surveyed has grown to $4 million, representing a 29 percent increase since 2013...

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Leeds and Ripple Pick Lockheed Martin to Help Build Open Source Digital Care Record

David Bicknell | Government Computing | June 14, 2016

Leeds City Council and the local Ripple community health initiative have picked Lockheed Martin to help them deliver aspects of an open source IT development to build an integrated digital care record platform. Ripple, which is funded by the NHS Tech Fund and hosted by Leeds City Council on behalf of the NHS Integration Pioneers, is building an open source integrated health and care platform that allows frontline staff to access the most up to date and joined up care information about an individual, helping drive better and safer care...

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NHS Open Source Movement Gathers Pace As Trusts Set Up CIC [UK]

Edward Qualtrough | CIO UK | February 9, 2015

An NHS open source community interest company (CIC) has been set up to guide the development of an electronic patient record system, which NHS England hopes will ignite the open source digital health and care services markets to better serve clinicians and patients. Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust formally signed an agreement in December 2014 to become the initial members of the new organisation acting as custodians for source code of the openMAXIMS EPR suite, which was released as open source in June 2014. Last week the CIC received approved establishment from Companies House.

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Op-Ed: There’s A Leadership Void In Addressing Critical Geospatial Issues

Kevin Pomfret | Nextgov | November 11, 2013

Last month, nearly 1,000 global government and industry representatives from around the world attended a Mexico-hosted conference on the economic, societal and governmental benefits of geospatial technology. Notably absent were U.S. government officials. [...] Read More »