Newsletter
#14
MedBiquitous Consortium Newsletter #14
6 June 2003
Published by the MedBiquitous Consortium
Contents:
- Developing a National Health Information Infrastructure
- Connecting for Health Recommendations
- Journal Working Group Convened
- MedBiquitous Bookstore Available
1.
Developing a National Health Information Infrastructure
MedBiquitous is proud to endorse Developing
a National Action Agenda for NHII, a conference
of the National Health Information Infrastructure
(NHII). NHII is an initiative
by the Department of Health and Human Services
(DHHS) to build the set of technologies,
standards, applications, systems, values,
and laws that support all facets of individual
health, health care, and public health. This infrastructure
is essential to improving
patient safety and quality, rapidly detecting
bioterrorism and other health threats, and
enhancing the efficiency of the health care
system. This conference will bring together
all the health information technology stakeholders
to develop a consensus for national action.
The expected 1,000+ attendees will attend plenary
sessions presented by experts in the field,
and meet in small breakout groups to consider
recommendations in eight key areas: Research & Population Health;
Homeland Security; Consumer Health; Financial
Incentives; Safety & Quality; Standards & Vocabulary; Architecture;
and, Privacy & Confidentiality.
MedBiquitous believes that the National
Health Information Infrastructure is vital to transforming healthcare
delivery, and that education and our work on technology standards
for education should be a critical part of a this infrastructure.
We encourage our members to participate in creating the NHII. The
conference takes place June 30 to July 2, 2003 in Washington, D.C.
MedBiquitous members receive a discounted registration rate.
2.
Connecting For Health Recommendations
Connecting for Health, a collaborative effort convened by the Markle
Foundation, has released a series of recommendations for bringing
the healthcare system into the information age. MedBiquitous participated
in the effort, which convened over 100 public and private stakeholders
to examine how electronic connectivity in healthcare can improve patient
care, lower costs, and protect privacy. The Data Standards Working
Group within Connecting For Health achieved consensus on a wide range
of healthcare data standards and identified the development of MedBiquitous/SCORM
standards-compliant educational resources as a key component of integrating
education into electronic medical records and clinical decision support
systems. MedBiquitous applauds the efforts of Connecting for Health
and its participants to improve healthcare through information technologies.
For more information, see the Connecting For Health website at http://www.connectingforhealth.org/.
3.
Journal Working Group Convened
The MedBiquitous Journal Working Group is underway.
Representatives from the American Academy of Family Physicians,
the American Heart Association, Elsevier Science, HighWire Press,
the Society for Critical Care Medicine, and Wiley are participating
in the working group to create XML standards and a Web services
model for electronic journal delivery and manuscript management,
including online submission and review. The group is currently
working to define standards for journal content and define requirements
for standards that would enable single sign-on across society and
journal websites. Participation is open to MedBiquitous members.
For more information on participating, contact Valerie Smothers
at valerie.smothers@medbiq.org.
4. MedBiquitous
Bookstore Available
The latest offering of MedBiquitous Community Code is now available. MedBiquitous
Bookstore is an online bookstore based on XML Web services that runs on your
organization's website. By providing access to the latest medical literature
in your field, it allows your organization to further support the self-directed
education of medical professionals and helps generate revenue for your organization
in the process. MedBiquitous Bookstore allows your readers to search through
Amazon's vast offerings without ever leaving your organization's website. Starting
on your bookstore page, readers can view featured items and begin their search
through your customized collections. When they choose a book, they add it to
their Amazon.com shopping cart and complete their purchases on Amazon.com. Your
organization receives money for each sale. MedBiquitous Bookstore is written
in Macromedia ColdFusion 5 and provides cascading style sheets and XSL that allow
you to customize the look and feel of the bookstore to fit in with the rest of
your website. MedBiquitous Bookstore is available to MedBiquitous members only.
To see an example implementation, visit the CTSNet bookstore at http://www.ctsnet.org/sections/journalsandbooks/bookstore/.
