SNOWMED transferred to an international body, ready for inclusion in FOSS

The College of American Pathologists has just Transferred SNOWMED CT to International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO). It is now available for use inside any of the IHTSDO Member countries if you are in the US, you can still get it from National Library of Medicine via UMLSKS.

However you still have to agree to the License Agreement for Use of the UMLS� Metathesaurus. It provides for some very FOSS unfriendly terms… included after the gap.
From the current license:

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Book Review: Best Care Anywhere

Phillip Longman’s Book ‘Best Care Anywhere: Why VA Health Care is Better Than Yours’ is a narrative of the transformation of the Veterans Affairs hospital system from the worst in the nation to arguably the best in the world, becoming the ‘Toyota of Healthcare’. Longman attributes the VA’s success in large part to the VistA electronic health record system, application of quality metrics system wide made possible by VistA, and alignment of economic incentives. The author contrasts this with the private sector in which poor quality and disorganization are rewarded. He warns of the consequences of retaining the private sector status quo. He ends with a proposal for private sector change.

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WorldVistA Wins Wired News 2007 Rave Award

David Whitten was the first to note to Linux Medical News that WorldVistA has won the 2007 Wired News Rave Award. This is in the latest print edition of Wired on page 147 featuring a picture of K.S. Bhaskar, Joseph Dal Molin and Maury Pepper. Bhaskar is quoted as saying “nothing short of world domination” regarding VistA. Shameless Linux Medical News plug: Bhaskar and Joseph Dal Molin are past recipients of the coveted Linux Medical News Freedom Award.

New Director Appointed – ONCHIT

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt announced Wednesday that Robert Kolodner will serve in a permanent capacity as the head of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC).And, with the appointment comes a change in the way the position is structured � ensuring continuity beyond the current administration.
During an exclusive interview today with Healthcare IT News, Kolodner said the delay in appointing him had mostly to do with �hammering down the details� of making the position into a permanent career position.

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openEHR RELEASE 1.0.1

The result of 14 months’ review, implementation and testing, this
release is a major milestone, correcting and improving the openEHR
Release 1.x platform. We believe Release 1.0.1 to be a stable base for
ongoing implementation and forthcoming specifications, including the
Template Model, EHR Extract, Security, Archetype Query Language, CEN
EN13606 integration and services (in cooperation with the HL7/OMG HSSP
project). It also provides a foundation for tools and systems for the
development and governance of clinical models, including openEHR
archetypes, templates and terminology subsets.
Together this forms the “openEHR Health Computing Platform”, as shown on
the diagram on the openEHR home page. Please see the links on the home
page for the release notes, specifications, online UML and XML-schemas
corresponding to this release.

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Blue Cliff VOE Readiness Training May 8-11, 2007

Blue Cliff, Inc. is announcing (PDF) VOE Readiness Training May 8-11, 2007 at the Manoa Innovation Center, Honolulu, Hawaii. ‘…Join the Blue Cliff trainers and get a jump start as they offer �hands-on� learning for
implementing VOE. Blue Cliff, Inc. has developed successful methods and support materials to
ensure VOE adopter success. The Blue Cliff team has over 80 years of proven experience,
successful implementations and satisfied clients…’

WP: VA Takes the Lead in Paperless Care

There’s a very positive article in the Washington Post on the Veterans Affairs VistA software: ‘…Since 1999, the VA’s 155 hospitals, 881 clinics, 135 nursing homes and 45 rehabilitation centers have been linked by a universal medical records network. It allows any authorized person to look at 5.3 million patients’ records — everything from a nurse’s note written during a hospital stay, to the result of a blood test drawn at a clinic visit, to the moving-picture film of a coronary angiogram done in a cardiology lab.

Even though President Bush has set a goal of 2014 for when most Americans should have their medical information stored electronically, the Department of Veterans Affairs is today one of the few health systems — and by far the largest — that is virtually paperless…’

FOSS Symposium, Houston Texas April 24th

IBM’s Eishay Smith, Enfold Systems Alan Runyan and a few others will be speaking at a one day symposium in Houston entitled ‘Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) for Healthcare: Progress and Promise’ This will be held at:
School of Health Information Sciences, UT-Houston
University Center Tower
7000 Fannin, 14th Floor
Tuesday, April 24th
Read on for the full agenda and registration info.

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