Conmergence

Key content is news from, about, or of interest to National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) in Africa. We request and invite you to submit an item before the 20th of each month capturing:

• News and developments from your NREN and news items of interest to NRENs
• Content networks: how researchers and academics are using the REN infrastructure to enhance effectiveness and efficiency their work and to promote national and international collaboration
• Hot tips about something you have done successfully (organisational or technical)
• A photo that tells a story
• Looking into the future, especially with regards to fibre infrastructure

Submissions should be sent to info@ubuntunet.net

You might want to do some research here http://www.internet2.edu/presentations/jt2012winter/

Folks:

Help me funnel ideas to Martin. Thanks! – Ed

Dear Ed,

I am writing to you because I am conducting some research on future developments in ICT to assist development in Africa, in particular mobile and internet. I’m aware of the HIMSS Medical Banking Project and World Bank Task Force  and some of my research may be of interest to you.

This project is to inform Comic Relief’s grant-giving, who are a grant-giving charity based in England that raised a £100 million or so last year through their telethons. I’m looking for any ideas, projects, contacts  or resources you may have on this. The most restrictive parts of the brief, which makes it interesting,  are technologies must be future, have direct impact and have some component of ICT in them, but I try to be flexible. Amongst other things, I’m looking at:

•        Cutting costs of ICT devices to include more people

•        Increasing the numbers of people connected through subsidising mesh networks (eg. Solar panel equipped mesh devices), WIMAX and 3G

•        Converting information from one medium to another (eg. SMS to Facebook or translated voice calls from local to commercial language)

•        Citizen journalism

•        Voice recognition

•        Crowd sourced information on complex events

•        ICT that enables other technologies (eg. Add-on sensors for mobiles eg. Ultrasound wands, 3D printing in remote areas)

•        Machine to machine communications (eg. Micro-grids for solar and other power sources with dyanamic pricing linked to m-banking)

Assuming this is of interest, I’d like to talk further about this sometime this week. I can send through a slide deck that may be of interest as well.

Best,

Martin Underwood

Future Media & Technology

Comic Relief

1st Floor, 89 Albert Embankment, London, SE1 7TP

tel: +44 (0)207 820 2298

email: m.underwood@comicrelief.com website: http://www.comicrelief.com/

Paul Sonnier writes:

Group: Wireless Health
Subject: New Mentor at Blueprint Health and Lessons from Venture “Assistant”, Vinod Khosla

Dear Wireless Health group members,

I founded the group to connect people, facilitate knowledge sharing, and accelerate health-related business innovations by entrepreneurs, startups, and established companies. Helping entrepreneurs is something that I’m particularly passionate about. In this context, I am excited to announce that I am now a mentor at Blueprint Health, the health and wellness-focused startup accelerator based in New York City.

In a recent interview, Vinod Khosla – who just closed a new $1B investment fund – stated that he is a “venture assistant”, not a venture capitalist. The hands-on assistance his firm provides to entrepreneurs is a core component of his investment success. A case in point is Jawbone, which was about to go under when Vinod invested in it. Vinod’s partner, David Weiden, made a key introduction to AT&T, whose distribution channel enabled a massive growth in sales, thus saving the company. (It’s noteworthy that UP, the company’s newest product is, you guessed it, a personal connected health solution. Another portfolio company is ZocDoc, the OpenTable-like application for making healthcare appointments.)

Why does this matter? In the relatively chaotic and burgeoning digital health innovation space, the startups that succeed will most likely do so as a result of the hands-on assistance provided by mentors and investors, who partner with them and amplify their talents via strategic advice, key introductions, and the ability to foresee and help guide entrepreneurs through the inevitable pivot points that occur along the way.

In my evolution as a social and business entrepreneur, the Blueprint Health mentor role is a huge step forward and further validation of my efforts. I’m eager to focus my energy on helping entrepreneurs, starting with the inaugural class this January. This is not a full-time role and I’ll continue working with the Wireless-Life Sciences Alliance, serving as a co-chair of the Healthcare Communications SIG at CommNexus San Diego and, of course, curating and building the Wireless Health LinkedIn group.

A brief overview of Blueprint Health:
Blueprint Health is a TechStars affiliated startup accelerator program based in NYC that helps early stage healthcare companies get started. Surround yourself with nearly 100 mentors – healthcare entrepreneurs, VCs and innovators – that want to help you succeed! Over the course of a 3 month program, we support entrepreneurs who are building innovative companies at the intersection of health and technology by providing capital, office space and, most critically, access to the most robust community of healthcare mentors of any accelerator program. We encourage you to learn more and to apply to our Winter program, which starts January 12th, by visiting http://www.blueprinthealth.org/

Mentor list: http://www.blueprinthealth.org/index.php?page=mentors
Recent media: http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/19/nyc-startup-accelerator-blueprint-health-now-accepting-applications/

Also, here’s a link to the fascinating interview with Vinod Khosla: What Cash Crunch? Khosla Ventures Closes Another $1 Billion Fund – http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/13/khosla-ventures-1-billion-fund/

Best regards,
Paul Sonnier

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/WirelessHealth1
Connect with me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/psonnier
Posted By Paul Sonnier, MBA

On August 12, 2011, Dr. Robert Malmstrom provided an update for The Discovering Dengue Drugs – Together project via webcast. Here are the links to the webcast and the related question and answer session.

On August 12, 2011, Dr. Robert Malmstrom from The University of Texas Medical Branch conducted a live webcast, where he provided an update on the Discovering Dengue Drugs – Together project.

Dr. Malmstrom provided an excellent update on The Discovering Dengue Drugs – Together project, which has been running on World Community Grid since 2007.

Press Release with graphics here.

Africa-Europe research collaboration to be transformed by EC-funded research infrastructure Boost for African research as European Commission injects €14.75M into regional research and education connectivity

Gaborone, Botswana, and Cambridge, UK, 11 May 2011: DANTE, the international research network operator, and the European Commission’s EuropeAid Cooperation Office today announce the signature of a €14.75M contract for support to a sub-Saharan African intra-regional research networking infrastructure which is already interconnected to the pan-European research network, GÉANT. Eighty percent of the project’s funding will come from the European Commission’s EuropeAid Co-operation Office, and the remainder will be contributed by the African partners in the project.

The contract represents a significant injection of capital to develop research networking infrastructure across sub-Saharan Africa and with Europe. The initiative will dramatically accelerate the development of the Information Society in Africa, providing advanced data communications infrastructure and enabling African researchers to collaborate more easily in advanced international research projects. Within the framework of the Africa Caribbean Pacific Islands (ACP) programme, the AfricaConnect project will establish a high-capacity Internet network for research and education in Southern and Eastern Africa to provide the region with a gateway to global research collaboration, the objective of which is to overcome the current limitations of international research collaboration within sub-Saharan Africa and towards Europe, and to foster research and education collaboration and advancement within and between these regions. The project will be strongly collaborative, so whilst DANTE will coordinate AfricaConnect, they will be partnered by DANTE’s regional counterpart organisations in Africa – UbuntuNet Alliance covering Eastern and Southern Africa, and West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN) covering Western and Central Africa – as well as the Association of African Universities; existing National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) in Africa (DRC, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia); and several European NRENs (Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and the UK). All will work to ensure that the project benefits all of sub-Saharan Africa.

“We are delighted to see this project underway,” said Cathrin Stöver, DANTE’s International Relations Manager. “DANTE has a strong history of supporting regional connectivity including actions in South America and Asia, and we will build on this experience to support African research and education networks as together they transform the research environment in Africa. DANTE always puts the emphasis on partnership in this kind of activity, and we are therefore excited to be working with such a strong group of partners on a project of this importance.”

Eng. Dr Francis Tusubira, CEO of the UbuntuNet Alliance agrees: “For the Alliance, this support is invaluable, since our challenges run from the macro-challenge of establishing regional connectivity in a geographical area that could contain the whole of Europe several times over, to the comparative micro-challenge of ensuring that each NREN has the human capacity to set up and operate their national network. Achievement of the impossible is our mantra, and we appreciate the support of the European Commission in this respect – their funding makes the achievement of the impossible a whole lot easier!”

DANTE will soon announce an international tender for the connectivity and equipment required for the AfricaConnect project. The infrastructure is expected to be operational by early 2012.

The AfricaConnect project is expected to last for four years, after which time the African Project Partners of AfricaConnect will ensure the sustainability of the intra-regional African research network and its direct connection to GÉANT.

About DANTE

DANTE is a non-profit organisation, coordinator of large-scale projects co-funded by the European Commission, and working in partnership with European National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) to plan, build and operate advanced networks for research and education. Established in 1993, DANTE has been fundamental to the success of pan-European research and education networking. DANTE has built and operates GÉANT, which provides the data communications infrastructure essential to the success of many research projects in Europe. DANTE is involved in worldwide initiatives to interconnect countries in the other regions to one another and to GÉANT. DANTE currently manages projects focussed on the Mediterranean, Asia-Pacific and central Asia regions through the EUMEDCONNECT, TEIN and CAREN projects respectively. For more information, visit www.dante.net.

About the UbuntuNet Alliance

UbuntuNet Alliance is, at both the conceptual and implementation levels, a commitment and movement by member NRENs to unlocking Africa’s intellectual potential by ensuring that African Researchers and Educators achieve equity with the rest of the world in terms of ease and cost of access to the global information Infrastructure as well as opportunities for research collaboration . The UbuntuNet Alliance was established in 2005 and registered in 2006 as a not-for-profit regional association of NRENs in Eastern and Southern Africa and currently has 13 members.

In January 2009, UbuntuNet Alliance established a 1Gb/s IP interconnection with the GEANT network in London. This connection has recently been upgraded as fibre has become available, prices drop and demands from NRENs increase, The upgrade includes a 10Gb/s IP connection to GEANT and a new 10-Gbps link for dedicated point-to-point connectivity, making Sub-Saharan Africa the first world region outside North America to gain dedicated circuit capacity with Europe. Therefore, the AfricaConnect project builds on a proven relationship between Europe and sub Sahara Africa.

NUANCE mailing list

NUANCE@lists.ubuntunet.net

http://lists.ubuntunet.net/listinfo/nuance

From: UbuntuNet Alliance <info@ubuntunet.net>

Date: Wed, 11 May 2011 12:19:35 +0200

To: <nuance@lists.ubuntunet.net>

Haven’t been blogging much personal stuff lately — tweetin’ and Facing mainly (@ed_dodds, @conmergence, @project_network). HIMSS11 has happened; didn’t attend but really looking forward to news out of the 9th Annual Medical Banking Project sponsored Institute, especially the working being done by John Casillas, Jim St. Clair and Eric Cohen on things XBRLish as relates to healthcare and the World Bank/World Health Organization/global health related tangent re: mobile money, mHealth, and mPayments which Angela Dunbar is patiently encouraging. That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate the work that John Phelan and June St. John and a cast of other visionaries are producing, but let’s be honest about where my passion is ;)

Got news this week that vc4africa completed the first venture capital funding deal (market-fleas.com). Ben White et. al. are to be commended for taking the world wide web and making it an asset for African entrepreneurs.

Takeshi Utsumi’s Global University collaboration initiative chugs along as he seeks to extend the Global Early Warning System (GEWS) concept to African nations as the global broadband build out enables cluster clouds to crunch big data virtually anywhere.

Mental Placeholder links here:

The Cloud-Enabled Space Weather Platform

http://www.hpcinthecloud.com/features/The-Cloud-Enabled-Space-Weather-Platform-116166269.html

ESG Gateway at the National Center for Atmospheric Research

http://www.earthsystemgrid.org/home.htm

The Earth System Grid – Center for Enabling Technologies

http://tw.rpi.edu/web/project/ESG-CET

Ranger Supercomputer Supports Microclimate Forecasting

http://www.hpcwire.com/news/Ranger-Supercomputer-Supports-Microclimate-Forecasting-117212923.html

The majority of the World Convention site rework has been completed. Some tweaking will be on-going. Julia Keith as the hub of cyber activities around Global Women Connecting has been enthusiastic about adopting and extending “all things over IP” comms tools and Gary Holloway continues to travel and meet folks from the global Campbell-Stone family of churches while facing the fundraising challenges all NPOs are dealing with (Deana’s staff [more like family, really] at United Cerebral Palsy of Middle Tennessee have this in spades with the consequences of the Nashville floods on area families and individuals who live with disabilities).

The Shepherds at Woodmont Hills have authorized an ad hoc committee to analyze and review all comms related activity that the congregation currently undergoes in hopes of “shepherding” all of our assets and processes into a more unified and effective approach re: our resources. I hope this will produce an “infrastructure” which will enable the Mission Committee to be as effective as possible re: it’s obligations to our various global colleagues.

“Open” groups continuing to grow on LinkedIn.

More folks investigating Results-Only Work Environments.

Interoperancy and hyperlocality affecting the eNews biz as well as the Edison-Carterification of smart phones and other similar devices.

Time to wade out of this stream of consciousness for awhile…

1) A City Sponsored BOINC Distributed Computing Effort

Zivis is the first “city-wide supercomputer”. The project is run by the Zaragoza City Council, and the Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex System (BIFI) at the University of Zaragoza. The objective is to harness local (and non-local) computing resources for local research; and at the same time to involve the community in the science being done locally. The initial research being done on Zivis is on the subject of fusion plasma (“Integration of Stochastic Differential Equations in Plasmas”) — improved understanding of this could lead to better designs for fusion power stations. (Fusion power is a form of nuclear energy that produces a lower volume of less dangerous waste than traditional nuclear fission power.)

Start Date: October 2005
Users: 2,359
Project URL: http://zivis.bifi.unizar.es

2) Intel introduces distributed computing to Facebook

Intel has set up a Facebook page designed to induce casual users to sign up for a distributed computing project that runs on the BOINC client system. Now Facebook users can crunch away on any of three DC projects… – Ars Technica

3) HIMSS crowdsources with Clinical Decision Support Wiki

Hello! The HIMSS Clinical Decision Support (CDS) Task Force helps guide and execute HIMSS efforts to ensure that CDS delivers on its promise to improve care delivery and outcomes.

What’s a Wiki? A wiki is an easy-to-use Web site that makes it easy to collaborate. You can use it to run a project at work, plan a trip, teach a class, etc.

Why a Wiki? The wiki provides a forum where stakeholders can come together to help develop, use, and discuss Task Force deliverables. The links below provide access to pages where this conversation and work is unfolding. Please browse this home page and links, and join us on this important performance improvement journey.

http://www.cbms2010.curtin.edu.au/

The 23rd IEEE International Symposium on Computer-Based Medical Systems (CBMS 2010) is intended to provide an international forum for discussing the latest results in the field of computational medicine. The scientific program of CBMS 2010 will consist of invited keynote talks given by leading scientists in the field, and regular and special track sessions that cover a broad array of issues which relate computing to medicine.

RELEVANT TOPICS

Network and Telemedicine Systems
Medical Databases & Information Systems
Computer-Aided Diagnosis
Medical Devices with Embedded Computers
Bioinformatics in Medicine
Software Systems in Medicine
Pervasive Health Systems and Services
Web-based Delivery of Medical Information
Medical Image Segmentation & Compression
Content Analysis of Biomedical Image Data
Knowledge-Based & Decision Support Systems
Hand-held Computing Applications in Medicine
Knowledge Discovery & Data Mining
Signal and Image Processing in Medicine
Multimedia Biomedical Databases

CBMS 2010 invites original previously unpublished contributions that are not submitted concurrently to a journal or another conference. Many of the above listed topics are represented by corresponding Special Tracks, while others are solely covered by the general CBMS track. Prospective authors are expected to submit their contributions to one of the corresponding Special Tracks or to the general track if none of the special tracks is relevant.

SPECIAL TRACKS

ST1: Computational Proteomics and Genomics
ST2: Knowledge Discovery and Decision Systems in Biomedicine
ST3: Ontologies for Biomedical Systems
ST4: HealthGrid & Cloud Computing
ST5: Technology Enhanced Learning in Medical Education
ST6: Intelligent Patient Management
ST7: Data Streams in Healthcare
ST8: Supporting Collaboration among Healthcare Workers
ST9: Telemedicine
ST10: Computer-Based Systems for Mental Health
ST11: Image Informatics in Biomedical Research and Clinical Medicine
ST12: e-Health

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Papers should be submitted electronically using EasyChair online submission system. The papers must be prepared following the IEEE two-column format and should not exceed the length of 6 (six) Letter-sized pages. LaTeX or Microsoft Word templates can be used when preparing the papers. Please, note that only PDF format of submissions is allowed.

Submission web site: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cbms2010

All submissions will be peer-reviewed by at least three reviewers. The proceedings will be published by the IEEE Computer Society Press. At least one of the authors of accepted papers is required to register and present the work at the conference; otherwise their papers will be removed from the digital library after the conference.

IMPORTANT DATES

Submission deadline for regular papers: 24 June 2010
Deadline for tutorial submission:  24 June 2010
Notification of acceptation for papers and tutorials:  2 Aug 2010
Final camera ready due: 2 Sep 2010
Author registration: 2 Sep 2010

INTENDED AUDIENCE

Engineers, scientists, clinicians and managers involved in medical computing projects are encouraged to submit papers to the symposium and/or attend the symposium. The symposium provides its attendees with an opportunity to experience state-of-the-art research and development in a variety of topics directly and indirectly related to their own work. In addition to research papers, keynote speakers and tutorial sessions it provides participants with an opportunity to come up-to-date on important technological issues. The symposium encourages the participation of students engaged in research/development in computer-based medical systems.

Organizing Committee

GENERAL CHAIRS

Tharam Dillon, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
Daniel Rubin, National Center for Biomedical Ontologies, USA
William Gallagher, University College Dublin, Ireland

PROGRAM CHAIRS

Amandeep Sidhu, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
Alexey Tsymbal, Siemens, Germany

PUBLICATION CHAIRS

Mykola Pechenizkiy, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
Tony Hu, Drexel University, USA

SPECIAL TRACK CHAIRS

Maja Hadzic, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
Jake Chen, Indiana University, USA

TUTORIAL CHAIRS

Phoebe Chen, La Trobe University, Australia
Xiaofang Zhou, University of Queensland, Australia

PUBLICITY CHAIRS

Carolyn McGregor, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Canada
Meifania Chen, Curtin University of Technology, Australia

GLORIAD is built on a fiber-optic ring of networks around the northern hemisphere of the earth, providing scientists, educators and students with advanced networking tools that improve communications and data exchange, enabling active, daily collaboration on common problems. With GLORIAD, the scientific community can move unprecedented volumes of valuable data effortlessly, stream video and communicate through quality audio- and video-conferencing.

GLORIAD exists today due to the shared commitment of the US, Russia, China, Korea, Canada, the Netherlands and the five Nordic countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, to promote increased engagement and cooperation between their countries, beginning with their scientists, educators and young people. The benefits of this advanced network are shared with Science & Education (S&E) communities throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas.

GLORIAD provides more than a network; it provides a stable, persistent, non-threatening means of facilitating dialog and increased cooperation between nations that often have been at odds through the past century. This new era of cooperation will provide benefits not only to the S&E communities but to every citizen in the partner countries through:

These are a small sample of the literally thousands of active collaborations served by both the general and advanced network services provided by GLORIAD. To learn more about the applications using GLORIAD, browse the following pages. This site describes the currently operating GLORIAD network and plans to expand this to a much higher capacity and more capable infrastructure in the years ahead.

available here.

The five regional TRC’s serve as a focal point for advancing effective use of telehealth technologies in their respective communities and regions of the nation. The one national TRC provides a mechanism for sharing experiences across the nation in addressing legal and regulatory barriers to the effective implementation of telehealth technologies. Although each Resource Center specializes in providing services to organizations within their primary service area, the TRC’s are committed to working in a collaborative effort to share their resources and expertise to service areas outside of their own regions.

The Telehealth Resource Centers are supported through the Telehealth Resource Center Grant Program, which is administered by the Office for the Advancement of Telehealth in the Office of Health Information Technology, Health Resources and Services Administration.

To learn more about the TRCs, you may download a fact sheet by clicking the image on the right, or you may click on the individual logos on the map below.

We’re seeking the greatest, most innovative minds in our community for mind-altering, life-changing discussions. We are reaching out to key community members and requesting their suggestions regarding potential speakers for our events. For our first event, our theme is innovation in health care and collaboration. If you have in mind a person in your network that is truly a world-class innovator in their field, please contact us here.

What is TED?
TED (http://www.ted.com) is a small nonprofit devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading”. It started in 1984 as a conference bringing together the greatest minds from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then, its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, TED has created a new TEDx community program.

What is TEDxNashville?
In the spirit of “Ideas Worth Spreading”, TEDxNashville is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At our TEDxNashville event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection among the participants.

Nashville is a unique community with several populations of truly extraordinary individuals whose work is changing the world.  Be they scientists, artists or philosophers their efforts serve to fundamentally shift how we understand our environment and live our lives.  TEDxNashville will provide a collaborative platform for our greatest minds to share their passions and inspire our own. Please join us in creating a model for TEDx communities worldwide.

While the main TedxNashville event is scheduled for February 2010, a planning and brainstorming meeting will be held on Monday, October 19, 2009, at Station Inn from 11am to 1pm. The goal for this preliminary meeting is to gather members from various sectors of the community to help envision what a successful first TedxNashville event will look like and how it can best be executed.  Your input, expertise, and advice will contribute to the development of this landmark event for the Nashville community.

This planning meeting will include lunch from Jimmy Carl’s Barbecue for $10 per person.

Your attendance at this planning and brainstorming meeting would be greatly valued. Please RSVP by Monday, October 12, 2009 with your name and a 50-word bio (to be distributed to all attendees) to TEDxNashville@gmail.com. If you cannot attend, but would like to delegate a proxy to attend on your behalf, please indicate such in your RSVP.

For questions about this planning meeting or about TEDxNashville, please contact TEDxNashville@gmail.com or see http://www.digitalnashville.net/group/tedxnashville. For further information about TED, please visit http://www.TED.com. 

We hope to see you on October 19th!

Sincerely,
TEDxNashville Planning Team

Top Houston Hospital Selects MedConcierge to Offer
Telemedicine to Corporations and Master Planned
Communities

September 8, 2009 (Sarasota, FL & Houston, TX) – St. Joseph Medical Center, the largest, Level 3 trauma hospital in downtown Houston, has selected MedConcierge to provide its advanced telemedicine solution to leading communities and corporations. Both parties will demonstrate the user experience and benefits of telemedicine during the upcoming 2009 FTTH Conference & Expo taking place at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, September 27th through October 1st.

"We are very excited to demonstrate the MedConcierge at St. Joseph Medical Center service to local community developers and corporate executives at the upcoming Fiber to the Home Conference," states St. Joseph chief executive officer Phillip D. Robinson, "Telemedicine will clearly be at the center of healthcare delivery moving forward and leveraging the technological advantages of the MedConcierge service over fiber-optic communications will help us extend patient services, generate additional revenue and save costs."

"St. Joseph is a leader in the Houston area, and we are thrilled to play a role in helping them deliver health and wellness services to residents of FTTH communities in and around the Houston metropolitan area," says MedConcierge director Rob Scheschareg. "Telemedicine offers competitive and financial benefits in a cost-effective fashion that is critical in today's market environment. We look forward to meeting service providers and developers at the FTTH Conference & Expo who want to take advantage of the billions being spent by consumers and the government in the next 30 months on home-based telemedicine."

Substantial news coverage, increasing consumer interest and adoption, and the allocation of billions of dollars in Federal stimulus funds specifically for broadband and healthcare information technology have placed telemedicine at the forefront of applications that benefit from fiber to the home networks.

"Fiber to the home provides benefits to consumers and employers that truly improve the quality of life. From our own industry research to that of our members and market followers, it is becoming increasingly evident that consumers want the benefits of improved healthcare services and access to doctors that services like MedConcierge and healthcare providers like St. Joseph can provide," states Joe Savage, president of the FTTH Council. "Telemedicine is a prime example of the type of applications that will be on display at our upcoming conference demonstrating the power of fiber".

To showcase the user experience, benefits and implementation of telemedicine services, MedConcierge and St. Joseph Medical Center will be hosting a number of activities at the upcoming 2009 FTTH Conference & Expo.  These include:

Corporate VIP Demonstration & Reception, Tuesday, September 29th.  For more information call the Corporate Health Connection at St. Joseph Medical Center at (713) 756-8600. 

MedConcierge Booth in the Fiber Zone, located on the show floor during exhibit hours. 

Phillip D. Robinson, CEO, St. Joseph Medical Center will be discussing telemedicine over FTTH networks as part of the Closing Keynote presentation Wednesday, September 30th at 2:00 pm.

For information about these events, visit the conference website at http://www.ftthconference.com.

About St. Joseph Medical Center

St. Joseph Medical Center, downtown Houston's only general acute care hospital, partners with Houston physicians to provide comprehensive health care to all.  As Houston's first hospital, St. Joseph Medical Center provides services for outpatients as well as inpatients, with a full continuum of care in surgery, cancer care, emergency care, Women's services, cardiovascular services, wound care, rehab, sports medicine, Corporate Health Connection and more. For more information on St. Joseph Medical Center, please visit http://www.sjmctx.com or call 713.757.1000.

About MedConcierge, LLC

MedConcierge is the leading provider of telemedicine solutions for community developers and operators, broadband service providers, healthcare providers, and municipalities, that deliver personal, concierge healthcare services to consumers at home, at work and while traveling. Utilizing our award-winning, patent-pending technology, MedConcierge provides unparalleled private and secure access to certified doctors, specialists and content. MedConcierge offerings range from real-time, live videoconference consultations, on demand, 24/7 with leading doctors, specialists, psychiatrists and wellness experts, to educational content, health status monitoring and dynamic electronic medical records – all accessible from the comfort, privacy and convenience of homes and facilities. For more information, visit http://www.medconcierge.com.

The purpose of the FY10 Open Source task force is to develop a white paper focused on open source deployments and opportunities of this technology solution within HIE. The monthly call is the first Thursday of every month at 1:00pm (ET). Contact Holly Gaebel <hgaebel@himss.org> to join this task force.

Please check out previously completed deliverables from this task force at the following links!

Evaluating Open Source Software for Health Information Exchange <http://www.himss.org/content/files/HIE_FY08_Open_Source.pdf> was prepared by the HIE Open Source Task Force as a primer on open source deployment in health information exchange environments.

Exploring the Use of Open Source Software for Health Information Exchange <http://www.himss.org/content/files/HIEOpen%20SourceWhitePaper071709.pdf> is a follow up white paper to 2008’s Evaluating Open Source Software for Health Information Exchange that was prepared by the HIE Open Source Task Force as a primer on open source deployment in health information exchange environments. This white paper focuses on assessing how open source software is used or planned to be used by HIE organizations.

Holly Gaebel
hgaebel@himss.org
Coordinator, Healthcare Information Systems
HIMSS
Transforming Healthcare through IT
230 East Ohio Street, Suite 500
Chicago, IL 60611
Phone: (312) 915-9227
Fax: (312) 915-9511

The National Laboratory for Scientific Computing of Brasil (LNCC) will host it's 8th annual Summer programme of mini-courses in advanced topics from 4 Jan – 26 Feb, 2010. The activities are developed by researchers from LNCC and guests from other institutions. The objectives of the program are the generation of scientific exchange and dissemination of the knowledge base and borders. The target audience consists of students at the end of undergraduate, graduate students, teachers, researchers, and professionals from companies and industries.

Among the 13 courses (listed below) is a 5 day course on openEHR. Since our first openEHR workshop in Brazil in 2007 we have seen a steady increase in interest at a national level in this open source friendly country.  In fact one of the pillars of the Ministry of Health is to utilize open standards and open source whenever available and whenever possible.

MC03.OpenEHR: An Open Standard for Information Management in the Area Health

Professors: Luciana Tricai Cavalini (UFF), Timothy Wayne Cook (UFF), Sergio Miranda Freire (UERJ) Working Hours: 14:30 hours

Period: 2010-1-18 to 2010-1-22

Schedule: monday – tuesday – wednesday – thursday – friday from 9:00 pm to 12:00 pm

Location: Lab 5

Purpose: The basis of the openEHR specifications,as implemented in the project Open Source Health Information Platform, and the corresponding methodology for developing information systems in health.

Syllabus: 

1. Fundamentals of information technology in health 1.1. Overview. 

1.2. The specifics of health information. 

1.3. Challenges present in developed countries and that developing countries should not follow these examples. 

2. Free software in health

2.1. Free software and e-government. 

2.2. The relevance of free software for health system. 

2.3. Requirements for sustainability of free software projects health

3. openEHR 

3.1. The model in 2 levels. 

3.2. The openEHR specifications. 

4. Open Source Health Informatics Platform (OSHIP) http://launchpad.net/oship 

4.1. Overview of Python, Zope, Grok, CLIPS and PyCLIPS. 

4.2. The implementation of openEHR specifications in the project OSHIP

5. Concrete cases of implementation 

5.1. The project Epidemiologic Surveillance Support System (EpiS3) 5.2. Integration clinical and radiological data. 

5.3. How to implement your project in OSHIP. 

Bibliography:

1. The openEHR Primer (Last access: Jan 7, 2008) http://www.openehr.org/shared-resources/openehr_primer.html

2. Garde S, Hovenga E, Buck J, Knaup P. Expressing clinical data sets with openEHR archetypes: a solid basis for ubiquitous computing. Int J Med Inf 2007, 76 (S3): S334-S341. 

3. Hanna KE, Anderson SM, Maddox SD. Fall 2005 White Paper: Think research – Using electronic medical records to bridge patient care and research. Washington DC: FasterCures (Last access: Jan 7, 2008) http://www.fastercures.org/pdf/emr_whitepaper.pdf

Other course topics include:

Complex Networks

Introduction to Computational Geomechanics to Reservoir Oil

Introduction to Quantum Computation

Coding Audio – Principles and Standards

Introduction to the Classical Theory of Computational Complexity 

Knowledge Representation

Social Networks

Modeling Computational Diffusion of Knowledge

Biology, Information and Knowledge

Dynamics of food webs

Mathematics and Computational Neuroscience Modeling

Shell Script Programming

For complete information about the courses and how to apply please see:

http://www.lncc.br/ingles/eventoSeminario/eventoconsultar.php?idt_evento=723 

Sincerely,

Timothy Cook, MSc
Health Informatics Research & Development Services LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/timothywaynecook
http://timothywayne.cook.googlepages.com/home
Skype ID == timothy.cook

Some GridKa School 2009 Abstracts available here.

<ed.note>While legacy newspapers struggle to find a way to monetize their next incarnation (hint: it's aggregating and/or researching data which can be gained nowhere else than from their subscribing readership — imagine think tank-portal-citizen journalism-distributed computing a la SETI@home crunching results), Chuck Martin has been surveying business leaders finding unique real-time insight. My general impression – how many cutting edge leaders are ready for the global digital enterprise enabled collaborative results-only work environment? – um, not so many. An indicator in specific follows: "Business leaders are not confident that their department or organization has an effective plan or strategy to deal with social networking."</ed.note>

August 24, 2009 – Social Networking for Business
Summary (survey results below):

No matter the title or the size of the company, the majority of business leaders have a low confidence level that their department and/or organization has a plan/strategy on how to effectively use social networking for business.

Sixty-six percent or senior executives and managers said they have a low
level of confidence and 12 percent have a high level of confidence.
Twenty-three percent were neutral.
More managers than top executives have a low confidence level in their
business' dealing with a social networking strategy, with 74 percent of managers
having a low confidence level compared to 59 percent of executives. 

By company size, more of those in large businesses have a low confidence
level
(73%) that their organization has a plan on how to effectively use social
networking compared to those in small businesses (64%). 

More of those in small businesses (14%) have a high level of confidence in
their organization's approach vs. those in large businesses (8%). 

Of the businesspeople who use social networking, 77 percent use LinkedIn, 31
percent use Facebook, 25 percent use Blogs and 18 percent use Twitter. 

An earlier study about social networking conducted by NFI Research showed
similar results.
Thanks to all who participated in the survey.  

Detailed Results follow: 

When it comes to using social networking for business, what is your
confidence level that your department and/or organization has a
plan/strategy on how to effectively use it? 

Of those who use social networking, Which of the following services do you use for BUSINESS purposes? (check all
that apply) 

Select responses from NFI Research members: 

- With the exception of LinkedIn, the vast majority of business
executives I encounter have little or nothing to do, from a business perspective, with
social networking sites.
 
- Social networking is a key strategy for our organization.

 - We currently block and have policies against using social networks
for business purposes. 

Thank you for your input!
If you have colleagues (other senior executives or managers) who you think
would benefit from participating in our surveys, you may invite them to
join.

Just have them go to the following link to sign up for free.
http://nfiresearch.com/index.php?option=com_artforms&formid=1&Itemid=59 

Follow me on Twitter @chuckmartin1 

Best regards,
Chuck Martin
Chairman and CEO
NFI Research
chuck@nfiresearch.com

Milt Capps reported on the Nashville Medical Trade Center and the proposed Nashville Entrepreneur Center here. Given today's technology I'd like to suggest that instead of building a PLACE it would be more strategic to offer a slate of SERVICES; specifically, those which would concentrate on the nexus of bioinformatics, cloud computing and distributed computing. With the recent gains in virtualization, the global build out of broadband, and the Obama Administration emphasis on healthcare, eHealth, medical devices and sensors, both the figurative and literal medical home, it seems there's an awful lot of emphasis on the part of executives to re-create an 1980 business model instead of looking ahead at the healthcare horizon. Nashville already has plenty of data centers to throw at this problem; a voucher system to pay for a computing services testbed while companies are bootstrapped is a more prudent first step — not to mention, tremendously less expensive to capitalize. Graduate studies at local higher education institutions, Internet2 and extant supercomputing capabilites at Oak Ridge should all be tapped first before other steps are taken.</ed.note>

Computer World/Network World – Former Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Carly Fiorina may be launching a run for the U.S. Senate.
Fiorina, a Republican, “filed for a tax identification number Tuesday and registered a campaign committee named ‘Carly for California,’” allowing her to raise money for a 2010 Senate run, according to the Associated Press. Fiorina would be attempting to win the seat of U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, a Democrat from California who became senator in 1992."

<ed.note>T'is a shame she decide not to use the Technotarian ticket and unify as many third parties as possible. We are apparently beyond the point in the development of the US political structure for a viable alternative party based on conservative (and transparent) fiscal and monetary policies along with compassionate, yet personal responsibility requiring (PRR) social policy. Given her global perspective and technology/telephony expetise she could have been an incredible boon to rural economic development based on individualized distance education and hybridized cloud and distributed computing.</ed.note>

<ed.note>I've learned about a decade ago if you want to know where the world is going to be 5 years from now in terms of technology that affects the average citizen you watch Andy Abramson, Ken Rutkowski and Jeff Pulver. Jeff watches and creates all
things telephony and he recently sent this missive out re: HD Voice. My advice: if
you have traditionally poopooed eHealth, telehealth, and ROWE in healthcare –
your game is about to change; your boat is about to be refloated; your canary is
about to molt; your scotch is about to hop — well, you get what I mean, or literally — you HEAR what I am SAYING.</ed.note>

Putting the Cable Industry on notice. HD Voice is happening.

I had an interesting time at the CableLabs Summer Conference at
Keystone Resort, Colorado. When I first arrived I had a chance to
catch up with the teams from both AudioCodes and IP Gallery and a few
of the familiar faces I have gotten to know over the years involved in
the communications industry.

Looking around the reception on Monday afternoon, it was clear to me
that the telecom recession was over, with the room packed with vendors
and about 1,000 people from around the world who made the trek to
Colorado for the CableLabs Summer Conference.

This was a closed conference with the majority of the sessions only
open to the members of Cablelabs.

If there was one session at the CableLabs Summer Conference that a
Cable company’s Chief Strategy Officer should have been at, it was the
HD Voice session which I greatly appreciate being invited to be a part
of. I say this because after listening to Orange’s Vivek Badrinath,
Executive Vice President, Networks, Carriers, and Platforms, it is
clear to me that consumer HD Communications is a reality, it IS
happening and it is going to happen faster than anyone may have
otherwise expected.

Vivek was welcomed warmly and embraced by the CableLabs delegates.
During his talk I was thinking of the Twilight Zone Episode “To Serve
Man” where (according to Wikipedia) a race of aliens known as the
Kanamits lands on Earth and promises to be nothing but helpful to the
cause of humanity. Initially wary of the intentions of such a highly
advanced race, even the most skeptical humans are convinced when their
code-breakers begin to translate one of the Kanamit's books, with the
seemingly innocuous title, "To Serve Man."

Sharing their advanced technology, the aliens quickly solve all of
Earth's greatest woes, eradicating hunger, disease, and the need for
warfare. Soon, humans are volunteering for trips to the Kanamits' home
planet, which is supposedly a paradise.

All is not well, however, when a code-breaker discovers the Kanamits'
true intentions: Their book, "To Serve Man", is a cookbook, and all
their gifts were simply to make humanity complacent.” (if you haven’t
seen this episode – you can watch it here).

Given the fact that France Telecom / Orange already has over 500,000
customers who have subscribed for their HD Voice offerings and that
their numbers are going to continue to grow as Orange rolls out their
HD Communication offers across Europe, I couldn't help but make the
connection between Vivek and the leader of the Kanamit's.

If I were involved with a cable company, I would have categorized his
talk as an early wake-up call and understand the worldwide Cable
industry was put on notice to be on the lookout for other incumbent
operators who have both a broadband offering and wireless offering to
follow in the footsteps of France Telecom / Orange and use HD
Communications as a platform to retain and grow their customer base.

Now is NOT the time for the Cable industry to continue to take a “wait
and see” approach with HD Communications but rather now is the time to
commit to residential trials for HD Voice consumer if the cable
industry wants to protect what has become their multi-billion dollar
monthly cash cow known as “digital voice services.”

Over the next few years, the growth of consumers who subscribe for HD
Communications offered by both wireless and broadband service
providers will help lift the communications industry.

“Fear, Greed and Disruption” remain my three favorite words and I am
enjoying this moment in time in the history of communications. I
remain a big fan of France Telecom for continuing to lead and innovate
with HD Communications.

Friends who would like to learn more about HD Communications are
invited to attend the next HD Communications Summit taking place on
September 15th in New York City.

http://pulverblog.pulver.com/archives/009008.html

The HD Communications Summit Agenda (Update #1)

On September 15th 2009 at New World Stages in New York City, I am producing HDComms, the HD Communications Summit. HDComms will bring together the emerging worldwide HD Communications ecosystem and we will explore the state of "HD Communications" and where things are headed. If you have a vested interested in the future of communications, please consider joining us in New York City next month.

HD Communications Summit Agenda
(as of August 18, 2009)

- Welcome – Daniel Berninger, Executive Director, HDConnect
- Jeff Pulver – CEO, pulver.com – "Accelerating the Conversion to HD"

Step 1 – The HD Technology Roadmap

- Nimrod Borovsky, VP Marketing, Enterprise Business Group, AudioCodes
- Martyn Humphries, VP/GM, VoIP Line of Business, Broadcom
- Jan Linden, VP Engineering, Global IP Solutions

Case Study: Lessons Learned from SD to HDTV
Robert Graves, Chairman, ATSC Forum

HD Innovations Panel: Moderator – Slava Borlin, VP Products, SpiritDSP
- Mike Eastman, VP Sales, WYDEVoice
- Alan Percy, Director Business Development, AudioCodes
- A. Ryan Heidari, Director Technical and Product Marketing, Qualcomm

Step 2 – Triggering End User Demand

Jeff Rodman, co-founder, CTO Voice Division, Polycom
Rick Krupka, VP Business Communication Services, Uniden

HD in Action Panel: Moderator – Daniel Petrie, CEO, SIPEz
- Joyce Kim, VP Marketing, Global IP Solutions
- Chalan Aras, VP of Product Marketing, Polycom
- Dave Frankel, CEO, ZipDX

Step 3 – Toward a Fully Functioning HD Ecosystem

- Josh Bottum, Director Business Development, Cisco
- Mike Rude, VP Business Development, DSPGroup

The HD Value Chain Panel Moderator – Michael Stanford, WireEvolution
- Michael Jablon, VP Digital Phone Strategy, Time Warner
- Tony Stankus, Product Manager Emerging Technologies,Gigaset Communications USA
- Mike Storella, Director Business Development, snom

HD Carrier Interconnection Panel:
Moderator – Daniel Berninger, Executive Director, HDConnect
- Eli Katz, founder and CEO, XConnect
- John Butz, Director New Product Development, Neutral Tandem
- Alan Bugos, VP Advanced Technology and Engineering, iBasis (invited)

Step 4 – The Path to HD Mass Market Adoption

- Rod Keller, CEO, Gigaset Communications USA
- Alla Reznick, Dir Product Management, Global Advanced Services, Verizon

Mobile VoIP Panel: 
Moderator – Brough Turner, Chief Strategy Officer, Dialogic
- Tobias Kemper, VP Social Media and Communication, Nimbuzz
- Diego Besprosvan, CTO, MailVision
- Mahesh Makhijani, Director Technical Marketing, Qualcomm

Perspectives on HD Tipping Points Panel
Moderator – Doug Mohney, Editor in Chief, HDConnectNow
- Anatoli Levine, Director Product Management, RADVISION and President, IMTC
- Richard Buchanan, Chief Marketing Officer, Ooma
- Jake MacLeod, VP and CTO, Bechtel Communications(invited)

Networking Reception

Interested in the future of communications? Register TODAY for next month's HD Communication Summit.