News

Summaries of open source, health care, or health IT news and information from various sources on the web selected by Open Health News (OHNews) staff. Links are provided to the original news or information source, e.g. news article, web site, journal,blog, video, etc.

See the following -

Commentary: It’s Time For Congress To Take On Patent Trolls

Gary Shapiro | Nextgov | August 5, 2013

Innovation is the backbone of the American Dream. Our nation has always encouraged entrepreneurs to turn their inventive and problem-solving ideas into the successful enterprises that drive our economy and create jobs. [...] Read More »

Commentary: Micro Vs. Macro Approach To iEHR Interoperability

Mark Byers | Government Health IT | May 30, 2013

There are many approaches to achieving electronic health record (EHR) interoperability. One way is to collaborate to build an entirely new EHR from the top down. In fact, this “macro level,” top down approach was attempted — but has since been scrapped — by the [VA] and [DoD]. Read More »

Commentary: The Diminishing Returns Of Big-Data Campaigning

Brian Fung | Nextgov | May 8, 2013

What if we were all wrong about the Obama campaign’s vaunted technological advantage? That’s what two Harvard researchers are suggesting. In a new head-to-head comparison of voter turnout in battleground states, what many believe gave President Obama an edge—his data-driven efforts at getting out the vote—might not have mattered much after all. Read More »

Commentary: The NSA Leaker And Highly Skilled But Academically Ordinary Workers

Brian Fung | Nextgov | June 11, 2013

Booz Allen Hamilton has released a new statement on Edward Snowden, its now-former employee and National Security Agency surveillance leaker. Read More »

Commentary: Time To Seize The Moment And Unlock The ‘Treasure Trove’ Of Federal Data

Steven VanRoekel | Washington Post | April 28, 2013

Occasionally, we publish blog posts, speech transcripts and other commentaries of interest to the Washington Business community. Here is an excerpt from a recent keynote address by Steven VanRoekel, the U.S. government’s chief information officer, to the Bethesda chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association. Read More »

Commentary: Time To Seize The Moment And Unlock The ‘Treasure Trove’ Of Federal Data

Steven VanRoekel | Washington Post | April 28, 2013

Occasionally, we publish blog posts, speech transcripts and other commentaries of interest to the Washington Business community. Here is an excerpt from a recent keynote address by Steven VanRoekel, the U.S. government’s chief information officer, to the Bethesda chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association. Read More »

Commentary: Will Health IT Increase Fraud And Abuse?

John Casillas | Government Health IT | September 24, 2012

A September 15 article in the Washington Post examines an area of increasing focus in healthcare -- fraudulent and abusive Medicare billing practices. Read More »

Commercial Health Record Software Would Cost $16 Billion, Says VA

Bob Brewin | NextGov | May 12, 2011

If the Veterans Affairs Department replaced its existing Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture with commercial software, it would face a bill of $16 billion, Roger Baker, the department's chief information officer, told a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday.

By contrast, the open source software approach now planned by VA will allow the department to upg Read More »

Commission Launches The 2013 EU Health Prize For Journalists

Press Release | European Commission (EC) | June 14, 2013

Today, the virtual doors swing open to journalists from across the EU wishing to participate in the annual EU Health Prize for Journalists. Read More »

Commonwealth Establishes Australian Digital Health Agency to Complement My Health Record

Asha McLean | ZD Net | July 26, 2016

The federal government has announced the establishment of the Australian Digital Health Agency and an advisory board comprised of doctors, informatics specialists, digital experts, and customer service executives tasked with ensuring the nation's health system is technologically up to date. Speaking at the Health Informatics Conference 2016 in Melbourne on Monday, Minister for Health Sussan Ley said the new agency will set the national agenda for technical and data standards, promote clear principles for interoperability, and open source development within the health system...

Read More »

Commonwealth Fund Spotlights 3 Telemed Model Citizens

Paul Cerrato | Government Health IT | February 15, 2013

While the nation’s healthcare costs continue to drain the economy, several forward thinking provider organizations are finding ways to turn the situation around with carefully thought out telemed programs. A recent report from the Commonwealth Fund highlights the cost effective approaches used by three “model citizens.” Read More »

CommonWell Chooses First Sites For Interoperability Service

Kyle Murphy | EHR Intelligence | December 11, 2013

The collaboration of health IT vendors has revealed its next step toward making interoperability  a reality for the healthcare industry, according to a statement by the CommonWell Health Alliance. Select provider sites in Illinois, North Carolina, and South Carolina will be the first to use its interoperability service offering, with additional locations to be announced in the months to come. Read More »

CommonWell Gives Patients Access to Records

Joseph Goedert | Health Data Management | August 24, 2016

CommonWell Health Alliance has launched a new program that is expected to give patients the capability of more easily accessing their health records. The initiative will begin with six electronic health record vendors: Aprima Medical Software, athenahealth, Cerner, Evident, Modernizing Medicine and RelayHealth. Two standalone patient portal vendors, Integrated Data Services and MediPortal, will offer an app enabling patients to access their records by year-end, says Jitin Asnaani...

Read More »

CommonWell Health Alliance To Launch Initial Interoperability Service Offerings In Illinois, North Carolina And South Carolina

Press Release | CommonWell Health Alliance | December 11, 2013

CommonWell Health Alliance (the "Alliance") – the health information technology (HIT) vendor-led interoperability effort – announced today that Chicago, Illinois; Elkin and Henderson, North Carolina; and Columbia, South Carolina have been selected as participating regions for its first rollout of CommonWell's interoperability services. Read More »

CommonWell Is A Shame And A Missed Opportunity

Adrian Gropper | The Health Care Blog | March 6, 2013

The big news at HIMSS13 was the unveiling of CommonWell (Cerner, McKesson, Allscripts, athenahealth, Greenway and RelayHealth) to “get the ball rolling” on data exchange across disparate technologies. The shame is that another program with opaque governance by the largest incumbents in health IT is being passed off as progress. Read More »