...apologies for cross posting....this has relevance to both the VistA and open source health community
In the past year or so there has been an increasing trend in "open source" adoption in some key US health initiatives.... the CCHIT Laika project and now this one: http://www.harris.com/view_pressrelease.asp?act=lookup&pr_id=2388 Cheers, Joseph (3/21/2008) Harris Corporation Awarded Contract to Develop National Health Information Exchange Gateway for Sharing Patient Records Company's Enterprise Intelligence Approach Applied to Healthcare IT in Support of Federal Agencies and Healthcare Providers Will Improve Quality of Care While Reducing Costs FALLS CHURCH, VA, March 20, 2008 — Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS), an international communications and information technology company, has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to develop and integrate an open-source, National Health Information Exchange Gateway solution. The Gateway, part of the larger National Health Information Network initiative, will enable federal healthcare agencies and healthcare providers to more quickly and easily share patient information - improving the quality of care and reducing costs. Initially, the Gateway will connect government healthcare providers within the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs, Social Security Administration, and Indian Health Service to provide access and exchange of vital patient medical records. The second phase of the Gateway deployment will move the core components into the public domain, essentially creating a World Wide Web for healthcare information exchange among providers of all specialties and sizes. Under the contract, Harris will provide the Gateway Core Services, customized software that can be easily downloaded by providers to quickly enable connection to the National Health Information Network; and a Software Development Kit which enables providers to customize the Gateway while connected to the network. "Too many people die in the U.S. each year as a result of medical errors, and more than 30 percent of today's crippling healthcare costs are tied to overhead activities such as moving paperwork around," said Jim Traficant, vice president of Harris Healthcare Solutions. "The Gateway offers the next generation of capabilities in providing immediate access to vital medical information. It will be a valuable tool for saving lives and reducing costs by sharing and managing information." The Gateway will integrate and reuse technology based on the Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid used by the National Cancer Institute and the Bi-directional Health Information Exchange that currently provides for medical information exchange between the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs. To provide the government with the lowest risk solution, Harris teamed with Agilex, Inc. and ScenPro, Inc. — recognized experts on technologies used in these programs. ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/openhealth/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/openhealth/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> 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/