Dutch to open electronic files on children
The Dutch government plans to open an electronic file on every child at birth as a tool to spot and protect the troubled kids of the future. Beginning Jan. 1, 2007, all citizens will be tracked from cradle to grave in a single database - including health, education, family and police records

Google "wildcard" search operator
Maybe life would be easier if someone smarter than us would just fill in the blanks. Google's "wildcard" search operator, using the asterisk, enables just that. Try [benefits of cpoe *] to find a series of good articles.

BIOMEDICAL INFORMATICS: COMPUTER APPLICATIONS IN HEALTH CARE AND BIOMEDICINE (3rd Edition, to be published early 2006) E.H. Shortliffe, and J.J. Cimino, Editors
Currently only the first chapter and the glossary is freely available, but the next edition of the book will be available soon. This book will be a must read for all informaticists!

Can Spies Decipher Keyboard Clicks? -- Researchers 'eavesdrop' and transcribe, warning of security risks.
In a paper released last week, the researchers explained how they developed software that could analyze the sound of someone typing on a keyboard for just ten minutes and then piece together as much as 96 percent of what had been typed. One lesson to be drawn is that even randomly generated passwords are not secure. His researchers were able to guess 90 percent of all randomly generated five-character passwords within 20 tries using these techniques. (Note: Imagine the problems if you were talking on the phone at the same time you were logging in? Ed.)

Guidelines for Defining the Legal Health Record for Disclosure Purposes
Historically, the definition of the legal health record was fairly straightforward: the contents of the paper chart (together with radiology films or the results of other imaging studies) formed the healthcare provider’s legal business record. However, with the advent of various electronic media, the Internet, and the consumer’s enhanced role in compiling their health information, the definition of the legal health record has become more complex. The legal health record is a subset of the entire patient database, which serves as the legal business record for the organization.

Might As Well Face It - Paper Won't Be Here Long
A potential physician adoption theme song from “The World's Most Reluctant Musician”, he produced “Minimal Service-CPT 99211” so people could hear his music at home, and he could reduce the amount of traveling that he had to do with his band.

Diabetes monitoring reaches new levels
CThe New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has taken the boldest step to identify and manage the treatment and health of diabetics. It plans to electronically collect A1c hemoglobin blood sugar levels from all 127 laboratories in the city that are connected to the Electronic Clinical Laboratory Reporting System (ECLRS), run by New York state.

Camera phones will be high-precision scanners
Using this new software with a 1-megapixel camera held at least 20 centimetres away, an 8.5" x 11" page takes about 3 to 5 seconds to scan. This produces between 21 and 35 images which the software merges together to extract the text and record any images. “The goal of [this] research is to enable mobile phones to be used as portable faxes or scanners that can be used any time.” (Note: What if clinicians could use such a device to capture current paper-based EMR-type documents into the EMR? Ed.)