This Week in Links

The Dept. of Health and Human Services Idea Lab (HHS IDEA Lab) is seeking applicants for a new West Health Innovator in Residence which is a two year appointment focused on developing a strategy for addressing problems related to aging. See full job description here.

Outcome-Oriented Metrics and Goals Needed to Gauge DOD’s and VA’s Progress in Achieving Interoperability (GAO Report - pdf)

uBiome has started aggressively courting research partners with their new Clinical Consortium, which offers researchers at member institutions early access to clinical tests, speaking opportunities at conferences, opportunity to apply for grants to fund research projects, early access to publications from others in the consortium, as well as a network of microbiome-focused academics. (uBiome Blog)

Adam Wright and Dean Sittig attempt to articulate an EXTREME definition for EMR interoperability; EXtract, TRansmit, Exchange, Move, Embed. (JAMIA - pdf)

“We believe that the technical rules adopted today by the FCC, which would allow unlicensed devices to operate in relatively close geographic proximity on the same frequency as hospitals’ Wireless Medical Telemetry System (WMTS), is [sic] not in the best interest of patients.” Rick Pollack, Executive Vice President of the American Hospital Association, in a sloppy response to the FCC decision to allow unlicensed devices use dedicated health care spectrum.

Robi Sen of IBM outlines why we need smarter wearables if we expect to use them to generate medical-grade data. (IBM Research Blog)

DEALS

IBM gives Watson eyes with announcement of $1B acquisition of Merge Healthcare. (HIStalk)

Practice Fusion Founder Ryan Howard thinks the time is now for his freemium EMR to enter the public markets and has hired interim CEO Tom Langan from Symphony Health Solutions to lead his troops through the process. (WSJ Blogs)

The FDA has awarded DNANexus a contract to build its new precisionFDA platform for managing next generation sequencing data. (FDA Blog)

Google announced it will be reorganizing its corporate structure to separate its core search and advertising businesses from the so-called “moonshot” projects the company has become (arguably) preoccupied by in recent years to the detriment of their existing products. Larry Page will step down as CEO of Google to assume leadership of the new moonshot holding company called Alphabet.