[openhealth] portable meds list ?
On Wed, 2007-09-05 at 16:06 -0700, DAVY HOBSON wrote: I read your article online from 1999. The last few years I have been trying to come up with an idea to develope some type of disc or software that stores and displays the medications and allergies individuals have so that when they come to the hospital we do not have to write down or input all those meds over and over. Do you know any programmers who are medical saavy that might be interested in working with me to come up with something we could sell or a service we could rent to the public? Davy Hobson 1011 Rhodes Drive Tyler, Texas 7501 Cell 903 279 3395 Y'know, it seems like such a good idea. And I've seen several technologies come and go over the years -- there's nothing that's caught on with the masses. In the current tech environment, I think the most feasible thing would be a https://MyMeds.org web site on which patients could create a meds list, and give the link to the doc or other provider. This would be captivating to the young folks who use MySpace, etc., and who are for the most part on no meds; and would be intimidating and infeasible for most of the geezers and geezerettes who make up the main medication-taking population. Just to be optimistic... In my experience, patients have a terrible time spelling their meds correctly even while looking straight at the bottles because the words are in a foreign lingo. And medication allergies and adverse side effects are very difficult to keep straight even when the paper record is comprehensive. An adverse response gets transmogrified to an allergy or the details of the reaction, sometimes important in the future, fail to get carried forward in a note. For example, a 60 year old woman received propafol, fentanyl, and clindamycin when an abscessed tooth was treated a few days ago; in consequence she developed a severe generalized urticarial eruption with secondary hypotension during the course of 4 days. A week later, in hospital, she began to remember that 20+ years ago she twice had itchy skin after receiving anesthesia and had been told by a consultant that they should use something else and they did without any itching. With considerable effort, I mined her records from another institution and found that in 1985 she'd had an episode of status epilepticus, treatment was associated with generalized dermatitis, which resolved only after phenobarbital was discontinued and replaced with carbamazepine. This barbiturate allergy did not get noted in her primary MD's record, was forgotten by the patient, and and so she had a recurrence, fortunately uncomfortable and expensive rather than injurious. This sort of thing - loss of continuity - is all too common, and it may not be made less likely by having yet one more clinical-data repository to check, even it it's in the patient's wallet. You might throw up your ideas on the openhealth list and see what the response is -- Best wishes, Dan Johnson md
[openhealth] VistA Office as 'open' EHR software
VistA Office is *public domain* -- not *open source* -- in the sense that OSS implies open access and collaborative development, neither of which has ever been true for VistA -- but VistA is required to be available openly and freely because it's the product of US taxpayer funding. But... this is our best hope for non-proprietary EHR software in the USA, and is worth pursuing. There's been considerable softening of the government position on use and sharing of VistA code, and so we all need to continue to encourage CMS (the agency formerly known as HCFA) to permit open, collaborative development on the VistA-Office code, and to support its use and propagation on open-source platforms. A year ago, I had forged an initiative by the Wisconsin QIO (Quality Improvement Organization) to fund development of VistA-Office on Linux, and distribution, but we were prohibited by CMS from proceeding. Joseph Dal Molin was then awarded a contract by CMS to develop vendor training for VistA Office, and anyone who wants to form a company to support this open VistA Office is welcome to work with Joseph to help make this truly OS and collaborative. Anyone who could do so, should. Otherwise, don't complain. In any case, VistA Office is committed to remaining code-compatible with the official VA system VistA, and the VA is not currently willing to subject its code to free and open collaborative development -- so collaboration on VistA Office will have to occur in the presentation layer. This is not an entirely bad thing; and if that develops, my guess is that useful pressure could be put on the VA to crack open a bit. Dan Johnson, md (open-source EHR fan, QIO trustee, simple backwoods internist) On Mon, 2006-06-19 at 13:55 -0400, Heitzso wrote: I just checked out the site and it certainly does *not* come across as an open source project. They call it an open, standards-based foundation but you have to be approved to access it, sign agreements, etc. There doesn't appear to be any way to (from the front page) to simply download the code and test drive it. VOE doesn't fit my common understanding of an open source project. Could someone please explain how this critter that barks like a dog and has hair is really a cute and cuddly duck instead? Thanks Karl, The service you are describing is being provided by State or regional Quality Improvement Organizations (QIO) which are funded by CMS. VistA-Office EHR provides full DOQ-IT capability and is open source. The person you spoke to may not have mentioned it because it is not officially released yet. The VOE project is funded by CMS... you can find out more here: www.vista-office.org Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~-- See what's inside the new Yahoo! Groups email. http://us.click.yahoo.com/2pRQfA/bOaOAA/yQLSAA/W4wwlB/TM ~- Yahoo! Groups Links * To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/openhealth/ * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Re: [openhealth] Re: oshca inaugural meeting - constitution
On Tue, 2006-04-25 at 23:37 +0100, Thomas Beale wrote: Joseph Dal Molin wrote: Will, why not let the process proceed and see what the results of the votes are? Agreed. I have voiced similar concerns about the current process to the protem and am comfortable going with the flow so OSHCA can incorporate and get to next phase. I've enjoyed the repartee, and as a lapsed perfectionist, I sympathise with the agonising. Yet -- the reality is that we are trying to pull similar wagons in the same direction, this is not a military or terrorist organization, and though we may be accused of religiosity in open-source advocacy, this seems to me not to be a sin. This is why I didn't agonise over the fine print, and plan on sending my ten bucks to whomever wants to have it (I somehow missed seeing the recipient by not reading the fine print carefully enough). Best wishes to all, Dan Johnson md SPONSORED LINKS Software distribution Salon software Medical software Software association Software jewelry Software deployment YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "openhealth" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
