In Pursuit of a Safe Canadian Healthcare System
The creation of a Patient Safety Board, modelled after Canada’s Transportation Safety Board, will provide the authority healthcare leaders require to reduce medical errors. Without a national Patient Safety Board we cannot efficiently and effectively identify, quantify and address medical errors in Canada. This paper also urges healthcare leaders to recognize that a fundamental tool in improving patient safety is the electronic health record (EHR).

Patient Safety: Is the Evidence Strong Enough That Information Technology Can Help?
Dr. Morgan pleads for a number of reforms, such as the creation of a Patient Safety Board akin to Canada’s Transportation Safety Board, the demonstration of an ROI for the electronic health record, the introduction of computerized physician order entry, and a number of other suggestions. Due to limitations of time and space, we will react to only a few of his views, mildly disagreeing with some while strongly reinforcing others.

Inpatient Computer-Based Standing Orders vs Physician Reminders to Increase Influenza and Pneumococcal Vaccination Rates
Computerized standing orders were more effective than computerized reminders for increasing both influenza and pneumococcal vaccine administration. Our findings suggest that computerized standing orders should be used more widely for this purpose.

The Year of the EHR : 2004 EHR Systems Review
The vendor profile data presented in the accompanying matrices is based primarily on the IOM criteria derived from the 1991/97 final study report titled “The Computer-based Patient Record: An Essential Technology for Health Care.” The criteria presented herein have been generally accepted as de facto standards by many of the leading EHR (CPR/EMR) vendors.

World Community Grid's seeks to create the world's largest public computing grid to tackle projects that benefit humanity
World Community Grid is focusing on a project key to advancing our knowledge of human disease. By identifying the proteins that make up the Human Proteome, scientists can build the understanding needed for novel and effective treatments for diseases like cancer, HIV/AIDS, SARS, and malaria.

System and method for providing continuous, expert network critical care services from a remote location(s)
A system and method for providing continuous expert network critical care services from a remote location. The intensivists are prompted to provide critical care by a standardized series of guideline algorithms for treating a variety of critical care conditions. A smart alarm system provides alarms to the intensivists to alert the intensivists to potential patient problems so that intervention can occur in a timely fashion.

Profiles in Science
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) is making the archival collections of leaders in biomedical research and public health available on its Profiles in Science® web site. Many of the collections have been donated to NLM and contain published and unpublished items, including books, journal volumes, pamphlets, diaries, letters, manuscripts, photographs, audiotapes, video clips, and other materials.

Leapfrog 2004 Survey Results Released
Of 1,019 total responding hospitals, 39 percent have fully implemented at least one of the four Leapfrog patient safety practices. Only four percent have fully implemented CPOE, although another 16 percent plan to implement it by 2006.