Health

Feedback loops are changing health behavior

The premise of a feedback loop is simple: Give people real-time information about their actions, and they're more likely to change those actions for the better.
» Read more

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

Open health with the quantified self

Beyond the walls of our constrained health system, there is a movement that could change the entire context of healthcare.

While the US health system struggles to open patient health data and to allow for better data sharing among providers, the self-tracking movement, known as the "quantified self," could soon make all those efforts for naught. » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 25 Aug 2011 by Lori Mehen (Red Hat)

Poll: Open source implantable medical devices

Karen Sandler, Executive Director of the Gnome Foundation, recently gave a talk at OSCON 2011 explaining why free software is critical on implantable medical devices. (Sandler has a defibrillator.) She's wants the FDA to collect and examine the source code used in such devices, and make the code publicly available.

Should people have the right to examine the source code of medical devices implanted in their bodies?

3 CommentsPosted 9 Aug 2011 by Colin Dodd (Red Hat)

Open data, apps and the FDA

One June 9th, The Department of Health and Human Services hosted the second Health Data Initiative challenge. The point behind the challenge is to promote and accelerate the use of open data to improve health. As part of the presentation, winning apps, utilizing the public data and conceived and produced by three teams of college students (one of which I use on a daily basis) were showcased. Very cool stuff.
» Read more

0 CommentsPosted 8 Aug 2011 by Briana Campbell

Healthcare organizations use open source to control costs, increase reliability

The interview below, with Scott Lundstrom, group vice president for IDC Health Insights, first appeared as a video presentation. To help guide healthcare organizations as they consider going forward with open source software, Red Hat, Inc. posed the following questions to Scott.

Q: What healthcare industry trends are removing costs from organizations’ IT infrastructures?
» Read more

0 CommentsPosted 5 Aug 2011 by Lori Mehen (Red Hat)

Open sourcing an outbreak investigation

The Germany-based Escherichia coli outbreak that killed at least 50 people and hospitalized thousands in May and June of 2011 has been declared officially over. Researchers credit advances in DNA-sequencing technologies and the ability to freely share data and collaborate with groups of researchers around the globe for the rapid analysis of the genome of the offending e. coli variant.
» Read more

0 CommentsPosted 4 Aug 2011 by Lori Mehen (Red Hat)

Injecting gaming into healthcare

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/axor/2295802559/sizes/m/in/photostream/">Axel Pfaender</a>

Every January I struggle to get a childcare reservation in the gym. By early February it becomes easier and by March 1 its no problem. Anecdotally, I know New Year's resolutions for fitness plans are short- lived. But research too suggests that most wellness plans, such as dieting and fitness, last about a month.

Health behaviorists spend their careers researching ways to keep people better engaged in their health because being your own advocate is the best way to stay healthy. Technology and data may therefore soon become the health behaviorists' best friends.
» Read more

1 CommentPosted 25 Jul 2011 by Lori Mehen (Red Hat)

Open source food at FOOD 2.0

Agriculture by Islam, need <a href="http://flickr.com">Flickr</a> attributions

The Open Source Food panel raised a diverse and complicated array of ideas about what exactly open source is and how it can be applied to food from software, hardware, social, and research perspectives. The conversation began by talking about how large amounts of information about where, who, and how our food is grown, as well as what processes touch it before it even gets to us, are often not available to the average individual. » Read more

2 CommentsPosted 19 Jul 2011 by The Experimental Gourmand

Thinking globally, acting locally in the wake of the 2011 Association of Ontario Health Centres Conference

Passionate people from around the world gathered for one purpose: to facilitate the engagement of egalitarian, community-governed healthcare. This international conference, entitled "Acting Today, Shaping Tomorrow", was sponsored by the Association of Ontario Health Centres (AOHC) on June 9 and 10 in Toronto, Canada. » Read more

0 CommentsPosted 14 Jul 2011 by Beverly Pearl

Using open data to improve health with Todd Park, CTO of Health and Human Services (webcast recap)

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Todd Park joined us on July 7 to talk about the power of open data for improving health. His position with HHS was created by the Obama administration as a change agent. And he's taking that role seriously.
» Read more

attachments: