Grim Reaper: Zero (0) --- Pete O'Dell: Still playing......

Wow, what a week. While I was lying the the intensive care unit and receving what seemed like the best medical care in the world for some blocked arterties that decided to seal up/give up/collapse on April 16th, the world of interoperability kicked in and helped give me a new extension on planet Earth:

The global network: I connected with people everywhere - more globally than in my own neighborhood (going to work on this). Response and outpouring of support was incredible.

AED: These little defibulators were the lifesaver - preventing any initial damage and restoring the heart rhythm. Highly recommneded for any place that has more than a few people, and I suggest that you get a training class on them.

Prevention: would have been best - some signs, but none of the major (pain, shortness of breadth, etc). I'd been working out a lot and at a pretty intense rate - you would have thought that I would have triggered a mild event sooner. Get checked.

Stents: The docs put in 3 stents to allow flow through the bad heart atteries - no need for open heart surgery or bypass, which I think I'm very grateful for....

More to follow as I figure this all out......I'll use the interoperability as a theme to tie it all together. Today, I'm thankful to be alive, thankful to all the people who made that happen, thankful for the extended opportunity to make a difference in the world. I'm hopeful that God has it all figured out for the next couple of weeks, as my brain is still a little mushy. Any thoughts appreciated.

interoperable medicine

Just getting out a a 6 day stint in ICU - despite all good intentions, diet, working out, etc, I ended up with a genetic heart problem that laid me flat. If not for some very fast defibulation by somone who knew how to use a standard interoperable device, it might have been far worse!!! (no further blog entry type of worse).

Trying to figure out the implications later and the meaning now......powerful experience. Check for updates, and get out and get the best preventative care you can!!! Far better to avoid than try to clean up later - not much more important.

NIEM a front for the CIA?

http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/blumenthat-niem-not-cia-trojan-horse/2010-04-04


This article is unbelievable. The Health guy identified rumors that NIEM was a front for the CIA because the data could move easily between agencies, and disavowed/denied any knowledge. Why the CIA would be interested in the scans of Grandma's colon cancer is quite beyond me.

While it's true that interoperable railroads allowed the Nazis to invade Eastern Europe, the idea of keeping government data completely *#$#ed up as a hedge against invasive prying has got to be way up the list - maybe we couldy bury individual time capsules in the mall that can only be dug up by court order and citizen watchdogs could oversee (but THAT watchdog could be working for the CIA!).

What do do? Standardized data would be far easier to audit, control and meter among agencies. Lets join the 21st centrury.

Transparency Camp - Washington DC

I attended Transparency Camp in Washington DC last Saturday of March (it ran all weekend, but I had a prior engagement that I would have liked to skip to attend both days).

Over 200 people from all walks of life except Fortune 500 companies - non-profits, government, small business, citizens, local and state government.

The transparency drums are beating louder, and much has been accomplished over the last year since the inaugural camp. Of note, the Sunlight Foundation is leading on a lot of fronts - both from a policy positioning standpoint, and also harnessing many of the application developer community.

I talked to a number of people about my position on interoperable data - that the government needs to work on giving the data in real time and in a free, forward leaning (XML) format. The National Information Exchange Model group in DHS/DOJ has been moving this ball forward in government, and OASIS is one of the premiere organizations driving worldwide.

Common Alerting Protocol is key for real time alerting - its flexible, multi-lingual, geospatially capable, and adaptableto many situations. There are a number of other great standards coming behind it. CAP is used by NOAA, FCC, FEMA, many commercial vendors, and a host of other groups around the world - including Sri Lanka. CAP supports many types of warning devices - from computers to sirens to emergency activated radios.

Congrats to all who made Transparency Camp happen. With all the whining, gnashing of teeth, partisan positioning, it was great to see a group of people working to make something happen!!!!!