Morning Headlines 7/9/15

Cerner to Replace Department of Defense’s Anatomic Pathology Laboratory Information System

The DoD selects Cerner as its next laboratory information system vendor, replacing its existing LIS applications across all Military Health System facilities.

Thompson, Harper, Black, Welch Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Expand Telehealth Services

US Representative Mike Thompson (D-CA) along with three co-sponsors introduces a bipartisan bill that would remove geographic barriers to telehealth services and increase the use of remote patient monitoring technologies for Medicare patients. The bill was referred to the House Ways and Means Committee.

New Patient-Focused Commitments to Advance the President’s Precision Medicine Initiative

The White House publishes proposed research guidelines for its Precision Medicine Initiative, aimed at protecting patient privacy. Public comments are open until August 7. The announcement also highlights several new initiatives aimed at increasing patient awareness about their right to get digital copies of their medical records.

Why medical journals must make researchers share data from clinical trials

BMJ becomes just the second major medical journal to require research data sharing as a condition of publication, joining PLOS. The NIH, World Health Organization, and Cochrane Collaboration have called for de-identified patient data collected during clinical trials to be shared with the the larger research community, but information sharing is still an uncommon practice.