Health

Open*Health: 2011 in review

This year has seen a good deal of discussion about the escalating costs of healthcare and shrinking access to it. Most of the discussion has centered around how to fix the problems with a series of buzzwords entering our lexicon, ACO, patient-centered health, EHR-EMR-HIT interoperability, and pay-for-performance among them. » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 29 Dec 2011 by Lori Mehen (Red Hat)

Open*Health 2011 best images

The visual components on opensource.com are an important element to the look and feel of our content. The images help set the tone for the site. The imagery embodies qualities such as motivational, editorial, authoritative (but not authoritarian), human, and optimism.

Without our imagery, the content on the site would be plain and unsightly. We'd like to highlight some of the images from 2011 and give you a chance to pick your favorite. » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 29 Dec 2011 by Jason Hibbets (Red Hat)

mHealth 2012: Innovators Challenge

Today kicks off the 2011 mHealth Summit in Washington DC, which will run through December 7. The event is expected to be filled with announcements of emerging technologies in mobile health.
» Read more

1 CommentPosted 5 Dec 2011 by Lori Mehen (Red Hat)

Open source cancer research

When it comes to treating, curing, and preventing cancer, modern medicine has largely failed. You could argue that cancer is far too complicated to unravel in the few millenia we have been documenting it. Or that the billions we spend annually on research is far too little. Established incentives and policies that perpetuate research silos certainly seem to slow success.

» Read more

8 CommentsPosted 1 Dec 2011 by Lori Mehen (Red Hat)

Todd Park: New incentives + Information liberation = Rocket fuel for innovation

Every time I come to The Syracuse Tech Garden there is always something new and exciting. This time around Todd Park, chief technology officer (CTO) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services(HHS) spoke to the upstate New York community in a talk titled Unlocking the power of data, IT, and innovation to improve health.

Park first got onto my radar late one night when I was trolling CSPAN around 4 a.m.. It was the first time I heard the words 'open source' mentioned on CSPAN, and I was more than excited to see the genuine article. Mr. Park did not disappoint. » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 15 Nov 2011 by Remy DeCausemaker

Drug companies try sharing

The multi-billion-dollar drug sector has endured a decade of under-performance. "Pfizer’s (PFE), Eli Lilly’s (LLY), Merck's (MRK), and Bristol Myers Squibb’s (BMY) stock is trading at half of their value 10 years ago and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is faring slightly better at a negative 25%," reports Steven Breazzano on Seeking Alpha. » Read more

1 CommentPosted 21 Oct 2011 by Lori Mehen (Red Hat)

Hackteria: Give your old devices new life

An abundance of high tech devices--year-old mobile phones abandoned for the latest iPhone release, low-pixel digital cameras, too-slow gaming devices and other consumer electronics--get tossed into our local landfills every day. Most people don't realize that these tossed aside 'black boxes' have real potential. With a little hacking, they can become very useful tools with applications in new surroundings. » Read more

1 CommentPosted 5 Oct 2011 by Lori Mehen (Red Hat)

Get free, personalized health advice and answers with HealthTap

Five months ago, HealthTap launched its public beta to help people share health information based not around symptoms or treatments, but around the individual. This week they've expanded the system by launching iPhone and Android apps. » Read more

2 CommentsPosted 29 Sep 2011 by Ruth Suehle (Red Hat)

Pharma: Start your engines!

In a rare but interesting example of pharma's willingness to look outside its own industry for innovation, GlaxoSmithKline is teaming with Formula 1's McLaren Group in effort to learn from the cutting-edge technology of motor racing. » Read more

1 CommentPosted 21 Sep 2011 by Lori Mehen (Red Hat)

Digital disruption in pharmacology

Imagine you could take your prescription pill with a microchip attached. And when ingested, the chip sends wireless signals through your body and transmits not only ingestion information but also your real-time heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, even body angle and sleep status. You can send this information wherever you'd like it to go: your own computer, your doctor's office, your childrens' cell phones. Sounds like a piece of science fiction, right? » Read more

6 CommentsPosted 20 Sep 2011 by Lori Mehen (Red Hat)