“Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” – Lewis Carroll
So, the first half of November has felt a lot like before breakfast at Lewis Carroll’s house. We could have universal health care by next year. Genes now account for a very small part of the human genome, a contrary view to what scientists previously thought. And yes, we have elected our very first African-American President.
President-Elect Obama is dedicating part of his administration to health care – this is no surprise (every President does) – and is bringing with him a wave of optimism, which is apparently changing the face of health care even before he enters office. As Edward Kennedy writes in the Nov. 9th Washington Post article entitled “Health Care Can’t Wait”:
Another good omen occurred in 2006 in Massachusetts, when businesses and workers, insurance companies and patients, Democrats and Republicans came together on a practical solution for the state. Since that solution was enacted, Massachusetts has expanded coverage to more than three-quarters of the state’s uninsured; the state now has far and away the nation’s lowest proportion of medically uninsured people. As a result of the large increase in enrollment, insurance premiums have dropped significantly….
President-elect Barack Obama has issued a clarion call for action on health care. His practical and thoughtful proposals draw from our Massachusetts experience and add important measures to improve quality and reduce costs. His plan includes crucial investments in modernizing the use of information technology in health care. He calls for a new emphasis on prevention and wellness, because the best way to treat a disease is to prevent it from striking.
Those of us who are working on OpenClinica look forward to the change ahead and its possible implications for Health IT. Akaza Research is currently working on the next release, which will include the latest in open-source Java frameworks, Hibernate and Spring. We are working on new ways to incorporate OpenClinica into other applications and frameworks, through an API. You can read more about our plans in the wiki roadmap, posted here.
In short, we are really amazed at what we’ve accomplished this month. Let’s keep the momentum rolling.