News Clips

Calls for Project Proposals Under “OSDD Chemistry Outreach Program”

Press Release | CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute (CSIR-CDRI), Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) | January 1, 2011

On the occasion of the International Year of Chemistry in 2011, CSIR launched a Chemistry Outreach Program to create an Open Chemical Library mainly to encourage M.Sc. as well as Ph.D. students at universities/institutes across the length and breadth of the country to carry out research in the area of medicinal chemistry and drug discovery against various infectious diseases like TB and malaria. 

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Community-Driven Standards-Based Electronic Laboratory Data-Sharing Networks

Patina Zarcone, Dale Nordenberg, Michelle Meigs, Ulrike Merrick, Daniel Jernigan, and Steven H. Hinrichs | Public Health Laboratories | December 31, 2010

Synopsis: Public health laboratories (PHLs) are critical components of the nation’s healthcare system, serving as stewards of valuable specimens, delivering important diagnostic results to support clinical and public health programs, supporting public health policy, and conducting research. Read More »

Open Source Initiatives Rated Highly

Aliya Sternstein | nextgov | December 30, 2010

Accenture and ACT-IAC particularly praised the administration's support for open standards in building health IT software. For example, the Veterans Affairs Department is considering upgrading digital patient records with open source software -- programs that use nonproprietary coding -- that would let outside developers improve and modify the code. VA's current e-records system, Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA), is based on a 1996 model for information exchange. Read More »

Getting a Secure Electronic Medical Records System

Dr. John D. Halamka | MedCity | December 28, 2010

Over the past few years, I’ve posted many blogs about the importance of transport standards. Once a transport standard is widely adopted, content will seamlessly flow per Metcalfe’s law. We already have good content standards from X12, HL7, ASTM, and NCPDP. We already have good vocabulary standards from NLM, Regenstrief, IHTSDO and others. We have the beginnings of transport standards from CAQH, IHE, and W3C. We have the work of the NHIN Direct Project (now called the Direct Project). Read More »

Joaquín Blaya Elected as the First Community Board Member for OpenMRS

Dawn Smith | OpenMRS | December 27, 2010

We are pleased to announce that Joaquín Blaya has been elected to serve the first, two-year term for the Community Board Member position on the board of directors. Read More »

Registration for EHR Incentive Programs Starts January 3, 2011

Press Release | ONC Health IT | December 27, 2010

Registration for the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs, administered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, begins January 3, 2011. Read More »

VA on the Bleeding Edge

Jason Miller | Federal News Radio | December 23, 2010

"I know that Google has moved forward with FISMA certification of some of the stuff they are doing so that is a possibility," [Roger Baker, VA CIO] said. "The issue there is that there are various levels of certification and what they have achieved is medium and for the types of information we store, it would have to be a high certification. But we look at is there a way to embrace the tool as it stands? Is there a way to bring the tool inside the VA firewall and control access to it a bit more and meet our requirements that way?"

Obamacare, The Constitution, And The Original Meaning Of The Commerce Clause

William J. Watkins | The Christian Science Monitor | December 21, 2010

Several lawsuits over the health-care reform's individual mandate hinge on interpretations of the constitution's Commerce Clause. This clause is widely believed to grant Congress broad power over national markets. But that isn't what the founders had in mind. Read More »

Announcement Concerning Progress with IHTSDO and Future Directions

David Ingram, Sam Heard and Dipak Kalra | OpenEHR Foundation | December 21, 2010

At its October meeting in Toronto, the General Assembly of the IHTSDO received and discussed a proposal, submitted by its Management Board, to support, develop and maintain the IP in openEHR, within a broader framework of IHTSDO governance for clinical content of the electronic health record. Read More »

Commercial or Proprietary?

 Egon Willighagen  | Chemblaics | December 21, 2010

It is very important to realize the Open Source software can be commercial. For example, you can get commercial support for Bioclipse and CDK withGenettaSoft. It is also really important to realize that free software (public?) does not mean it is Open Source (or visa versa).

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Transition at FrontlineSMS: Credit – Announcing Kopo Kopo and Introducing Nathan Wyeth

Laura Walker Hudson | FrontlineSMS | December 20, 2010

In addition to producing award-winning open-source software that empowers social change organizations all over the world to use SMS in their work, FrontlineSMS serves a catalyst for innovation and new ideas. Read More »

17 Leading EHR Vendors

Margaret Steen | Information Week | December 18, 2010

The Basics: OpenVista is used by hospitals and their affiliated doctors' offices, as well as long-term rehabilitation and psychiatric care facilities. It runs on laptops and desktop clients and can be used by large facilities. Partnerships between Medsphere and other companies allow smaller facilities to run OpenVista as a remotely hosted solution if they don't have enough internal IT staff. It uses one of two databases: InterSystems Cache on Windows or FIS GT.M on Linux. OpenVista is not available as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution, but Medsphere said it likely will be in the future.

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MedVirginia Shares Data with VA, DOD in Hampton Roads Pilot

Mary Mosquera | Government Health IT | December 16, 2010

The MedVirginia health information exchange has started sharing patient records with the Veterans Affairs and Defense Departments in the Hampton Roads, Va., area, the second community to start testing the virtual lifetime electronic record (VLER).

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Fed Tech Officials Laud IT Innovators at ONC Update

Joseph Conn | Modern Healthcare | December 16, 2010

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology ended its two-day update of federal health IT activities on Wednesday with cheerleading from three top government information technology officials.

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Disparities in Healthcare Among Minorities and the Use of Health Information Technology

David A. Dietz and Garth N. Graham | Online Research Journal | December 15, 2010

As the computing power and capabilities of information technologies continue to grow and improve, so do opportunities to modernize the US healthcare system through application of these technologies—in order to foster the health and well being of individuals in underserved minority communities.

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