Uversa opens new testing service

Uversa has recently opened a testing tool (with a very punny name) limtus test. The system is designed to help provide a way for ClearHealth community members to contribute to the testing of releases in a systematic way.
This is really smart and should take the code quality of ClearHealth to another level. I think they are the first EHR project to do this. The tool seems to be integrated with the Mantis bug tracking tool. Editor: according to Uversa’s David Uhlman: “The tool mentioned is a rewrite of the Mozilla foundations excellent Litmus test tool (http://litmus.mozilla.org/) in PHP. They deserve all the credit for the tool, we are just using it. The code is under the GPL of course and available to anyone who wants it.”

Fred Trotter

A Short Treatise on Health Informatics Standards

The Chair of the openEHR Foundation has taken a few days to recharge and develop a thought or two on international standards in health informatics. This is well worth reading and thinking about.
There are additional events occuring at this time that might be considered to support this position. Please see the “Detailed Clinical Models”:http://detailedclinicalmodels.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page (DCM) event documents and Wiki.

Below you will find a thought provoking commentary from the Chair of openEHR.

Continue reading

Legal issue arises over electronic patient files

AMA board member says it should be illegal for a company to withhold patient data from doctors. But doctors say Dr. Notes is doing just that. The South Florida Business Journal (paid subscription required) reports:

There�s a federal push to digitize health care records, but experts are worried over allegations that a Boca Raton company [Dr. Notes] cut some doctors� access to electronic patient files after they failed to pay fees.
It turns out there is no current law that would stop a software vendor from doing so, federal and state agency officials say. The laws that cover patient privacy and access to records apply to health care workers, not third-party vendors…of the clause in Dr. Notes� license agreement, �Just because it’s in the fine print somewhere in a place a normal person wouldn’t see it doesn’t mean you can enforce it.�

Xbox for Stroke Rehabilitation

I saw that one on slashdot (link to the discussion).
“Using an Xbox modified to run Linux, researchers [at Rutgers University in New Jersey] have developed virtual reality hand exercises for rehabilitating stroke patients. An inexpensive glove controller is used to interact with the Xbox. The hardware cost is a tenth of a comparable commercial hand rehabilitation system, leading to the possibility of deployment in patients’ homes.” (slashdot summary)

ClearHealth developer publishes AJAX book

I recently picked up Understanding AJAX by Josh Eichorn. Josh is a core ClearHealth developer with Uversa. I am about halfway through it and it is an excellent reference for any web-based EHR developer. AJAX holds the promise of making a web-based EHR just as interactive as a thick-client application. Understanding AJAX covers the basics of AJAX and then spends a lot of time discussing the various AJAX libraries available and how to make use of them. Because so many languages and libraries are covered, there is almost no FOSS EHR project that could not benefit from the techniques described.

This is quite an accomplishment for both Josh and Uversa.

Fred Trotter