Latest Blog Posts

VHA Quietly Provides EHR Training to Physicians in the U.S.

Training physicians in the use of Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems is crucial nowadays. Fortunately, this type of training has been quietly provided by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) to many hundreds of thousands of clinicians across the country over the past several decades. Here are some simple facts that might surprise some readers. Read More »

Open Letter to Chuck Hagel: DoD still doesn’t know what the hell they are doing

...I fear that you are paving a road to a hellish destination.  Rather than lifting up the VA eligibility problem to a shiny new common information system, you are on the verge of dragging health IT into the same bureaucratic vortex that has already done so much damage in the past.  AHLTA was declared “intolerable” in a Congressional hearing 4 years ago.... Read More »

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 »

Institute for eHealth Policy Briefings - Issues & Opportunities

The Institute for eHealth Policy briefing, held on Capitol Hill June 20th, presented the challenges and barriers to overcome as  rural and underserved communities work to adopt interoperable EHRs. Read More »

DoD's "Naming Switcheroo" for its Health IT Systems

I may be way off base, but it seems to me that the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is a master of the "Naming Switcheroo" when it comes to requesting funding for programs that may have run into trouble and used up most of their Congressionally approved funds. Read More »

Report from the 13th Government Health IT Conference & Exhibition

The following are some selected observations and notes reported from the 13th Government Health IT Conference & Exhibition held last week in Washington, D.C. Read More »

Health IT Strategies to Enable More Patient/Provider Collaboration in the 21st Century

In the 1970's, most healthcare organizations began the process of using mainframe computers to automate their business processes, e.g. payroll, accounting, logistics. In the 1980's, healthcare organizations began the process of automating selected clinical departmental business processes using mini-computers or servers, e.g. patient registration, pharmacy, laboratory, radiology. Read More »

Report From Health Datapalooza IV

Datapalooza IV was all about collaboration, open solutions, and innovation.  Remember this magical formula:  Collaboration + Open Solutions = Innovation Read More »

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 »

Open Business Conference 2013 - Summary

The recent Open Business Conference held in San Francisco offered the opportunity to learn from business and technology experts working in the open source arena. It also allowed participants to network with open source peers, developers and sponsors. Read More »

Check out the enhanced ONC Health IT Dashboard

Want to better understanding health IT and the transformative changes that electronic health records (EHR) are having in our nation's health care system? Read More »

Observations on the latest 'Future of Open Source Survey'

A major theme running through this year's Future of Open Source Survey is that 'Open Source is Eating the Software World's Lunch.' The survey data shows that the 'Open Revolution' is having a major impact on both the Read More »

Chuck Hagel’s Assessment Of iEHR: “I Didn’t Think We Knew What The Hell We Were Doing.”

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel testified before a Congressional hearing yesterday about the Integrated Electronic Health Record project: “I didn’t think we knew what the hell we were doing.” I’m glad that he put the stop to the effort after only $1 billion, the UK National Health Service blew an incredible $17 billion before pulling the plug. Read More »

WHO Global Health Observatory & Other 'Open Data' Resources

Interested in learning more about 'open data' healthcare resources  around the globe? Check out the World Health Organization's (WHO) Global Health Observatory.  This WHO information portal provides access to 'open' data, statistical analyses, and reports for monitoring the global health situation. Read More »

'Open Systems' for Consumers Comparison Shopping for Healthcare

Americans can comparison shop online for almost anything today. This ought to apply to the healthcare industry as well. How much are hospitals or clinics charging for medical procedures and other healthcare services? Where is the online Amazon, Best Buy, or Wal-Mart site that you can go to and check the prices before heading off to see your doctor. Read More »

HIMSS13: Open Source 'Best Practices' in the Federal Sector

The following are some of notes and observations from one of Open Health News content contributors, Marc Wine, on one of the sessions he attended about the VA VistA system, OSEHRA, and some Open Source 'Best Practices' within the Federal government and in the private sector. He recently attended a number of open source and government sessions at the recent HIMSS 2013 conference in New Orleans that attracted over 30,000 attendees. The following are some of his notes and observations from one of the sessions he attended about the VA VistA system, OSEHRA, and best practices Open Source 'Best Practices' within the Federal government and in the private sector. Read More »

An 'Open' Hospital Chargemaster System is Needed

Every hospital has what's known as a chargemaster, also known as charge description master (CDM). A charge master is a listing of every single procedure that a hospital may provide to its patients.  It is well established that chargemaster prices are inflated, vary widely from hospital to hospital, and often have no relation to the actual cost of providing care. Read More »

More on the 'Open Health Movement'

The open source movement that started several decades ago has slowly morphed into something much bigger - a comprehensive global 'Open Movement'. The movement now encompasses open source, open access, open data, open standards, open hardware, as well as open business models, open government, open leadership, and much more. Read More »

Disturbing new Microsoft Office strategy

According to Computerworld, Microsoft just confirmed that a retail copy of Office 2013 is permanently tied to the first PC on which it's installed, preventing customers from deleting the suite from one machine they own and installing it on another. Read More »

Observation on the 'Open Health Movement' from Hawaii

I've been sitting on the beach in Hawaii for the past several weeks, enjoying life and my moment in paradise. There's nothing like the North Shore of Oahu, watching some of the world's best surfers effortlessly riding 10-20 foot waves every day. It's amazing. Read More »

Electronic Health Record (EHR) Infographic by HealthIT.Gov

View the latest Infographic on the history of Electronic Health Records (EHR) and how they may improve your health and health care in the future just posted by HealthIT.Gov. Read More »

Students & Professors developing Health Apps at universities across the country

Here at Open Health News, we are receiving more and more recommendations of free or low cost health apps being developed by students or professors at universities across the country – and the pace is picking up. Read More »

Open Health News - Top Stories in 2012

As the year comes to a close I wanted to do a quick review of the leading topics and top stories of the year for Open Health News. Our site has grown exponentially this year and now we have over 50,000 readers. Based on the number of readers viewing news articles, the top 10 topics of interest included the following... Read More »

An Overview of the Open Source Maturity Model

The following is a brief summary of the Open Source Maturity Model as defined by Open Health News (OHNews). It provides a high level description of the six major phases open source systems go through during their systems lifecycle – from the birth of an idea to a mature global solution. Read More »

Business Models for Open Source

A quick Google search on "Business Models for Open Source" brings up numerous articles and studies on the topic that proclaim there are anywhere from five major business models to over eighty possible examples. Read More »