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Senate Bill Calls For Open Source Electronic Health Records

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the wider-adoption-can-only-help dept.

An anonymous reader optimistically writes that new legislation has been introduced in the Senate that would call for a nationwide adoption of electronic health records built on open source. The bill does not seek to supplant proprietary alternatives, but instead to either augment or offer a cost effective alternative. "'We need advancements in health information technology across the board to improve the quality of care Americans receive,' said Senator Rockefeller, Chairman of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care. 'To make this happen, we need universal access to affordable and interoperable health information technology — from small, rural health clinics to large, urban hospitals.'"

3 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. Good place to start by orclevegam · · Score: 5, Informative

    After talking with some people in the medical field, it seems like an excellent place to start would be in the medical imaging records. Just about all the advanced imaging equipment out there saves the images to a "standard" format that's about as standard as a MS Word file. Every manufacturer has their own custom version of the "standard" that's incompatible with everyone else, and regularly updated, thus ensuring a constant (and broad) income stream.

    --
    Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
  2. Re:Test it with the military first by DragonWriter · · Score: 5, Informative

    They should implement this in the military first as a test.

    The VA was and other federal agencies already were the "test". From TFA: The Health Information Technology Public Utility Act of 2009 will build upon the successful use of "open source" electronic health records by the Department of Veterans Affairs as well as the "open source exchange model," which was recently expanded among federal agencies through the Nationwide Health Information Network-Connect initiative.

  3. RTFA by DragonWriter · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why not use the one our tax dollars have already developed?

    Why not RTFA?

    VistA is the VA's EHR system.

    FTFA: The Health Information Technology Public Utility Act of 2009 will build upon the successful use of "open source" electronic health records by the Department of Veterans Affairs as well as the "open source exchange model," which was recently expanded among federal agencies through the Nationwide Health Information Network-Connect initiative.