If you're a software coding guru, the National Library of Medicine -- and breastfeeding mothers everywhere -- need you.

NLM will host this fall a hackathon to improve a database of drugs that could harm lactating mothers and their infants, reports Government Health IT. The team that developed Pillbox, the library's database of drug information and images, will break down the LactMed database and improve it using feedback from software experts, physicians and breastfeeding mothers.

During our one-day hackathon, we will take the LactMed system, deconstruct it and rebuild it with all of those stakeholders in a single room, single-day event," said [David Hale, project manager of Pillbox and a technical information specialist with NLM]. "We will look at our data and ask if the structure is appropriate and what do we need to do to modify it. Then, with the API experts, we'll develop a specification for back-end services that Web designers can use. What we will end up with is a toolkit that anyone can start to leverage.

Standards that facilitate the sharing of electronic medical records between health care providers still aren't perfect, according to members of the federal advisory Health IT Standards Committee.

Government Health IT reports that while the new certification and standards final rule from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT do allow some additional flexibility for how patient information is entered and used, the guidelines may not be specific enough.

For example, the Veterans Affairs and Defense departments use C32, a standard format recommended by the ONC. C32 includes information about a patient's medical status but can be tailored based on an organization's needs. That flexibility may work for sharing data on some levels but not on others, the article states, which has left the agencies unable to pass records back and forth.

With the first stage of meaningful use, "we pushed the ball a little further down field. But I don't think we have sufficient specificity to guarantee interoperability," [said Dr. Doug Fridsma, acting director of ONC's standards and interoperability office]. At the same time, too much specificity can preclude innovation. "We're still trying to get this right," he said.

Good technology currently being used in physicians' offices may be outdated in the coming months, and not just because of the speed at which IT develops.

For health care providers seeking to achieve meaningful use of electronic health records, systems and equipment that currently are beneficial will have to be replaced if they can't meet certification standards, according to Dr. David Blumenthal, national coordinator for health IT.

In a hearing Tuesday, members of the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee questioned whether health care providers will run out and purchase new technology knowing that the certification program won't be up and running until 2012. Providers who don't demonstrate meaningful use by 2015 could face penalties.

According to Blumenthal, The Office of the National Coordinator has in place a temporary certification program, but it doesn't include all the criteria that providers will have to meet in the long run.The certification standards are entirely new because they must reflect the requirements of meaningful use, he said, adding, "We don't want to create the impression for providers that something they're using now will be capable of meaningful use."

But lawmakers were optimistic about the potential of new technology to modernize an antiquated health care system.

"We live in the information age, yet our healthcare system has been mired in the pen-and-paper past," said Anna Eshoo, D-Calif.

Medical professionals are jumping on the smart phone bandwagon, making "there's an app for that" even more relevant in day-to-day patient care.

According to the blog Medical Smartphones, 94 percent of physicians surveyed by Spyglass Consulting reported that they used smart phones. Forty-four percent owned iPhones, and 25 percent said BlackBerry was their device of choice.

While the study's sample size was quite small--based on around 100 physician interviews--it presents an interesting trend. And you have to wonder what's behind the rapid smart phone adoption in the medical community. The report gave communication, improved workflow and access to information as primary drivers, according to the blog post. The latter certainly makes sense given the rapid growth of the app market, as docs can even access the Physician's Desk Reference, a sort of bible of prescription drugs, on their iPhones or BlackBerrys. After all, one look at the print version is enough to make you run to your nearest wireless provider.

In an interesting twist, the regulation that was designed to protect patients' sensitive information has forced the identification of medical practices that experience privacy breaches.

HealthLeaders Media reports that the Office of Civil Rights, which manages and enforces the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act regulations, now will list the full names of entities reporting data security breaches on its website, regardless of whether those organizations agree to have their information published.

According to the article, medical practices previously were considered "individuals" and therefore had to give consent for their names to be revealed. Those "individuals" would be listed as "private practice" on the OCR website. Those names, however, are now listed in full.

The new rule boosts transparency, certainly, for those who want assurance that their personal information is safe and sound. But it's an interesting conundrum -- the very rule designed to protect privacy of some indirectly takes it away from others?