Health care at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention--Call for Proposals is open

The O'Reilly Open Source Convention is offering a health care track for the second year in a row. We had a wonderful health care track last year (summarized in our report to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; I'll also post some links to videos, interviews, and blogs at the end of this article), and we're planning to build on our coverage of last year's topics as well as add some topics that got short shrift last year.

Topics that didn't receive as much coverage last year as (I think) they deserved, and that we hope to feature this year, include:

• Roles of standards in health record formats, and weaknesses that need to be addressed
• Communication with devices (ranging from ordinary cell phones to specialized medical devices) and their use to improve care
• Use of electronic records and clinical decision support outside the United States