THLPE Announces First Annual Business & Entrepreneurship Summit February 26, 2010
Posted by gonzalezloumiet in Tallahassee.Tags: IT, Small Business, THLPE
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TALLAHASSEE - The Tallahassee Hispanic/Latino Professionals and Entrepreneurs (THLPE) announced that they will be hosting their First Annual Business & Entrepreneurship Summit in Tallahassee, FL in May. The Summit is being created to help small business owners and entrepreneurs of North Florida gain the tools and information they need to create/improve their businesses. Topics will include:
- Top 10 Secrets for Profitability for Small Businesses
- How to Secure Funding for My Small Business in a Recession
- The Influence of the Hispanic Market on the Overall Market
- Successful Small Business Stories & Experiences (Panel)
- The Virtual Office: How to Leverage Technology to Save Money in a Digital World
THLPE has partnered with Über Operations (www.uberops.com) and the Latinos in Information Science and Technology Association (www.a-lista.org) to host the summit. ”6 years ago, Über Operations was a two-man company working out of a home and now it is now a national award-winning organization employing over 25 people. We want to see many more small businesses in North Florida succeed like we have and this summit provided the perfect opportunity to collaborate with this next generation of small business owners and entrepreneurs” said Eduardo Gonzalez Loumiet, Managing Director of Über Operations.
The final date and location of the event will be announced March 1st. If you would like to participate or help sponsor the Business and Entrepreneurship Summit, please contact Alex Bello at alex.bello@thlpe.org
About THPLE:
The Tallahassee Hispanic/Latino Professionals & Entrepreneurs are working together to strengthen the network of professionals and entrepreneurs in the Hispanic/Latino community and to promote opportunities for young Hispanics/Latinos of all ages through leadership, scholarship, service, and diversity. The organization hosts monthly “Networking Socials” and other events in the community to help provide its members with opportunities for person and professional growth. For more information on THLPE, please visit www.thlpe.org.
About Über Operations:
Founded in 2004, Über Operations is now a leading provider of health care IT services due in part to their exclusive IT resources, their creativity, and hard work. Their goal is to provide the highest quality in software solutions and to find and work with the best IT professionals in the industry. Über Operations provides the integration services for several large private and public organizations, such as: the Florida Dept of Health, Texas Dept of State Health Services, and the University of Washington. Über Operations team members are considered experts in open source technology such as PHINMS, NHIN CONNECT, and Mirth to name a few. For more information on Über Operations please contact: sales@uberops.com.
About LISTA
LISTA’s (www.a-lista.org) mission is simple: to educate, motivate and empower the Latino community with Technology. LISTA promotes the utilization of the technology sectors for the empowerment of the Latino community. LISTA is an organization that is committed to bringing various elements of technology under one central hub to facilitate our partners, members and the community with the leverage and education they need to succeed in a highly advanced technologically driven society.
HHS plans move to cloud for regional centers February 22, 2010
Posted by gonzalezloumiet in HHS, ONC.Tags: CRM, Project Management, Regional Extension Centers
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HHS will deploy CRM software to RECs for managing medical providers’ implementation of electronic record systems
- By Rutrell Yasin
- Feb 19, 2010
The Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information is looking to deploy cloud-based customer relationship and project management software over the next six weeks to its Regional Extension Centers.
The software will help the RECs to more effectively track and manage medical providers implementing electronic health record (EHR) systems, said Marty Young, managing director of Acumen Solutions, the company implementing the technology. The cloud computing CRM and project management technology comes from Salesforce.com, and HHS will used it nationally.
SalesForce.com provides and hosts prebuilt applications for commercial users and government agencies in what is known as software-as-a-service offerings. Acumen has customized the software to meet HHS business and specifications.
Source: http://gcn.com/Articles/2010/02/19/Health-and-Human-Services-cloud-computing.aspx?p=1
Advancing Health Information Exchange February 12, 2010
Posted by gonzalezloumiet in Blumenthal, Health Care IT, Nationwide Health Information Network.Tags: Beacon Community Program, Blumenthal, NHIN
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February 12, 2010
A Message from Dr. David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
Today we announce the first cooperative agreement awards authorized by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. It marks a major milestone in our journey towards nationwide adoption and meaningful use of health information technology (health IT). One set of awards provides $386 million to 40 States and qualified State-Designated Entities to rapidly build capacity for exchanging health information across the health care system both within and between states through the State Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program. The other awards provide $375 million to create 32 Regional Extension Centers (RECs) that will support the efforts of health professionals, starting with priority primary care providers, to become meaningful users of electronic health records (EHRs). Additional awards will be made in both programs over the coming weeks. Together, these programs will help modernize the use of health information, improving the quality and efficiency of care for all Americans.
As part of the State Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program, states will play a leadership role in achieving HIE to meet health reform goals. The funds awarded will be used to establish and implement plans for statewide HIE by creating the appropriate governance, policies, and technical services required to support HIE. Developing this state-level capability will help us break down the current barriers to HIE and help providers to qualify for Medicare and Medicaid incentives under the HITECH Act. The awards will also strongly encourage states to consider participating in the Nationwide Health Information Network as an approach to HIE. This would create a pathway toward seamless, nationwide health information exchange.
While the State HIE awards will strengthen capacity for health information exchange, the Health Information Technology Extension Program awards will establish RECs to deliver direct outreach, education, and technical assistance services to health care providers in their regions. Each REC will focus most intensively on the physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners who work as part of individual and small group primary care practices, as well as those who dedicate themselves to providing health care to the underserved. Primary care providers in small practices provide the great majority of such services in the U.S. but have limited resources to implement, meaningfully use, and maintain EHR systems. On-site technical assistance for these priority primary care providers will be a key service offered by the RECs. RECs will assist providers who have not adopted EHRs, as well as those who have but need help progressing to meaningful use. Regional extension centers will also help providers keep health information private and secure.
The Health Information Technology Extension Program and the State Health Information Exchange Cooperative Agreement Program are critical components to the end of a nation-wide interoperable, private and secure electronic health information system. I look forward to working in collaboration with each state and REC as they establish their programs, begin work within their communities, and promote the transformation of our health care system. I applaud each awarded entity for its dedication to the mission of improving the quality of health care and for the leadership and guidance it will provide.
Sincerely,
David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P.
National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) encourages you to share this information as we work together to enhance the quality, safety and value of care and the health of all Americans through the use of electronic health records and health information technology.
For more information and to receive regular updates from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, please subscribe to our Health IT News list.
Obama administration awarding $975 million to advance health information technology February 12, 2010
Posted by gonzalezloumiet in Health Care IT, Information Technology, Obama.Tags: Health Care IT, Information Technology, Obama
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is awarding $975 million in grants to help states and health care providers adopt health information technology.
The grant money being announced Friday comes from the economic stimulus legislation passed by Congress last year and is part of the administration’s push to get doctors, hospitals and others to move from paper to computerized record-keeping. Administration officials say the grants are designed to provide savings down the road by eliminating duplicative tests and time-consuming paper work.
The White House says the awards will help make health information technologies available to more than 100,000 hospitals and primary care physicians by 2014 while helping to train thousands of people for careers in health care and information technology.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is awarding $386 million to 40 states or entities selected by states to advance the exchange of health information at the state level. Sebelius is also granting $375 million to 32 nonprofits to help develop regional extension centers to assist health care workers on health IT issues.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is announcing around $225 million to support 55 training programs in 30 states to help give people job skills for the health IT field. The administration says around 15,000 people should get training.
Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-us-health-it-grants,0,1047760.story
Why open source is health reform February 2, 2010
Posted by gonzalezloumiet in NHIN, open source.Tags: Diabetes, Harvard, Indivo, NHIN, open source
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Posted by Dana Blankenhorn @ 7:41 am
Health reform, at its heart, is an effort to transform market incentives.
In the current system, there is no reason to limit costs. The doctor who diagnoses an illness directs treatment. The more treatment, the more money is made by the hospital and its supply chain.
Payment is similarly disconnected from service. Insurers have tried, for years, to fight these cost rises on behalf of their customers, and failed.
Open source starts by connecting data. As Matt Mattox of Axial observed last week (talking with Jason Hibbets of Red Hat), it drives systems toward an open architecture.
The current Administration’s support for open source and open architectures is aimed at breaking apart data silos, collecting the data that can in turn drive change.
The fear of the Administration’s opponents is that government will control the data. But another important aspect of open source health care is that it can give patients access to their own data.
That’s the aim of Indivo, a new open source project from, among others the Harvard Medical School, the same people who are driving the Administration’s health reform proposals.
As Fred Trotter explains, it’s a Personal Health Record (PHR) platform engine. It’s both a way to make a PHR, and link PHRs together. It’s a way to break the silos being created in that market, much as the NHIN “Health Internet” is designed to break silos in the larger Electronic Health Record (EHR) market.
We should already have enough data to drive reform. We know what works. Wellness services work. Doing what is cost-effective first works. Every other industrial nation has used these tools to transform incentives and provide ample care at a fraction of the cost Americans pay.
But by making political arguments against science, those who benefit from current business models have succeeded, for now, in preventing reform.
So thousands of people will die needlessly this month, and next month, and the next, because they did not get needed care. And half those with diabetes will be reluctant to get treatment, for fear of losing their jobs and thus access to care.
My point is that these arguments may hold against the rivulets of data we now have available. By automating care under open source standards we can unleash a Google-sized torrent onto the research community, proving the case once and for all. By providing data to patients, we also empower them to demand change, and to seek services before they’re sick.
That’s why open source is health reform. Unlock a high enough flood of data and mere arguments will be blown away. Show people their own data, explain what it means, and people will demand the services needed in order to live and not just get well.
Source: http://healthcare.zdnet.com/?p=3273&alertspromo=&tag=nl.rSINGLE
