Pessimists Beware: This is the First of Three Blogs on Government Progress in Interoperability, Information-Sharing . . . and Social Determinants of Health and Wellness

It’s election season, so we all hear routinely from candidates across the political spectrum about what government doesn’t do, about how inefficient it is and about how it doesn’t really strive to serve people. I’m not going to take sides in that debate, but the optimist in me has to weigh in with this: What […]

Elementary, Dear Watson, the Symposium is about Change . . . and the Future

While preparing for the Stewards of Change 10th Anniversary National Symposium – which begins next Monday at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore – SOCI President Daniel Stein met by phone a few days ago with IBM Global Business Consultant Joseph Fiorentino and Martin Duggan, who leads the IBM Curam Research Institute. Here are edited highlights […]

A Long View, Far Away

I’ve noticed recently that articles and blogs on Application Programming Interfaces (API) for Health Information Technology are beginning to trickle out in the media, and proclamations of the API as the “key” to unlock interoperability of health systems and data are building.  And it’s about time, but it seems somewhat pale in view of the […]

ArcGIS Open Data: An Invitation and an Opportunity

By Este GeraghtyChief Medical Officer and Health Solutions Director, Esri The California Open DataFest II is fast approaching (March 16 and 17), and it marks a time of celebration and of coming full circle for me. You see, as physician–scientist at UC Davis, I yearned for data to be more available to facilitate my research. […]

OPEN DATA: A Lot of Sparks, So Why No Wildfire Yet?

The concept of “Open Data” has  excited and frustrated a lot of people over the years, because it’s one of those things that makes total sense on paper, and therefore “feels” like an idea that will quickly go viral and generate tremendous value. Yet it hasn’t yet, so its supporters are puzzled and reflexively think […]

Our 9th Annual Symposium: Reflections on the Possible

At the end of our three-day symposium at Johns Hopkins University earlier this month, I asked the attendees to describe their experience in just one word. Here’s a representative sampling of what we heard: “Exciting.” “Energizing.” “Thought-provoking” (is that one word?). “Insightful.” And my personal favorite: “Inspiring.” All of us at the Stewards of Change […]

Health Datapalooza: A Call to Improve Care Through Open Health Data

By Dwayne Spradlin, CEO, Health Data Consortium —   Great strides have been made in the public availability and use of health data, but we still have a long way to go in our efforts to improve health care in the United States. At the center of the efforts of the Health Data Consortium is […]

First Health and Human Services Open DataFest

Stewards of Change Institute is proud to announce the first health and human service Open DataFest, taking place in Sacramento, California January 21st and 22nd.  The purpose of this symposium is to build broad awareness, knowledge and utilization of open data in general, but more specifically within health and human services across California. Working in […]

The Latest Revolution

Throughout the developed world, and at all levels of government, the latest explosive innovation linked to government use of IT is the rush to make government data open. Particularly in larger cities in the U.S. and Europe, state and local governments are finding more and more datasets never heretofore made public and are publishing these new […]