In Memoriam: Clem McDonald, MD
A Founder, a Force, and a Friend. Clem was a luminary in the field of biomedical informatics for innovations in electronic medical records, clinical decision support, multi-institution data exchange, and especially in the global standards that helped computers share and understand health data.
On enabling digital freedoms with open data standards
In the United States, on the third Monday every January we honor American civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King Jr. Of course it was Dr. King who invoked the lyrics from that well known American anthem My Country, 'Tis of Thee to so...
Accelerating scalable clean water solutions with digital transformation
During our recent trip with the Ugandan Water Project, we visited communities, schools, and health clinics for a close-up and hands-on learning experience of how clean water solutions in Uganda are helping people break free from the bondage of water-borne disease and...
From Concept to Creation: A Custom Stand for the Nord Stage 3
Dubbed "the ultimate instrument for the performing musician," scores of reviews praise the Nord Stage lineup. When our family's venerable Yamaha YDP-121 digital piano accumulated nearly as many stuck keys as working ones, I selected the Nord Stage 3 88 as our new...
Issues with using Creative Commons licenses for biomedical terminology standards
The most powerful health data standards are openly developed public goods. In crafting the Manifesto for Open Terminology Development we selected openness and accessibility as guiding principles. Yet in my conversations with standards development organizations who...
Complete guide to a high tech, low clutter home office setup
Many of us are working from home offices more than ever now. With a proper setup, your home office can stimulate your best work. Too often, our high tech digital lives create a tangled mess of cables, chargers, and adapters that distract and annoy. Plenty of other...
Project Secret Weapon Phase II: Clean Water
In the summer of 2018, we traveled to Uganda for the commissioning of the Building Tomorrow Primary School of Mwiguru, located in the Masindi District that we helped launch in Phase 1 of Project Secret Weapon. We are so pleased that it is now up and running! While...
Managing Scientific Paper Revisions in Scrivener
I have long professed my love of using Scrivener for writing scientific papers. Scrivener is a magnificent writing environment for academic papers once you get past the small initial learning curve. In other posts, I describe how I use a custom Scrivener template to...
Getting started with LOINC’s API by FHIR
Regenstrief Institute now provides web services that make much of LOINC's terminology content available through the HL7 FHIR API. These services open up a whole new way to interact with LOINC programmatically. This tutorial will help you get started with LOINC's FHIR...
School construction update
We just got an update from the Building Tomorrow Community Development Officer who is on site at the Mwiguru primary school supported by Project Secret Weapon’s Build-a-School campaign. The school construction is making great progress! It is wonderful to see the...