July 05, 2006
The Growth of Open Source Software in Healthcare
According to the Wikipedia, open source software refers to computer software available with its source code and under an open source license. Such a license permits anyone to study, change, and improve the software, and to distribute the unmodified or modified software. It is the most prominent example of open source development.
The use of Open Source Software (OSS) solutions by health care providers and organizations is an increasingly important trend today. The number of OSS solutions currently available has grown to be quite substantial. The number of new OSS health care solutions under development is equally impressive.
Critical to the development of Open Source Software (OSS) solutions is the existence of formal and informal networks of developers, companies and individuals that are supportive of this movement. Many clinical OSS projects may only be supported by a few developers; others could include dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of participants. Often times, the larger clinical OSS initiatives have dedicated not-for-profit entities coordinating and facilitating development efforts.
For example:
VistA Software Alliance (VSA)
WorldVistA
Selected Examples of a Wide Range of Clinical OSS Solutions
The following are just a few of the many hundreds, if not thousands, of freely available open source software solutions or knowledge bases in the public domain.
- AMPATH Medical Record Systems (AMRS) - AMPATH is an international open source project that has built a scalable, flexible electronic medical record EMR system built on open standards. Visit www.amrs.iukenya.org and http://openmrs.org/wiki/
- BLOX - The purpose of the project is to develop a quantitative medical imaging and visualization program for use on brain MR, DTI and MRS data. It is a joint project of the Kennedy Krieger Institute and the Johns Hopkins University, Psychiatric Neuroimaging Lab. There have been 22 developers involved in this effort. In addition, the MedIC service from Johns Hopkins provides access to a variety of other free medical software at the MedIC web site. See http://medic.rad.jhu.edu/download
- CARE2X - Care2x integrates data, functions and workflows in a health care environment. It currently contains the following four major components: HIS - Healthservice Information System; PM - Practice (GP) Management; CDS - Central Data Server; and HXP - Health Xchange Protocol. Visit http://www.care2x.org/ and www.liferecord.com
- CAREWare - From standalone system to the Internet, this is a scalable software application developed by HRSA for managing and monitoring HIV care. See http://hab.hrsa.gov/careware/
- ClearHealth - ClearHealth claims to be the first Free and Open Source (FOSS) Practice Management System to address the big five features: Medical Billing, Medical Accounts Recievable, Scheduling, Access Control, and EMR . Visit http://www.clear-health.org
- Clinic Assessment Software Application (CASA) - CASA is a tool for assessing immunization practices within a clinic, private practice, or any other environment where immunizations are provided. See http://www.cdc.gov/nip/casa/Default.htm
- ClinicalTrials.Gov - The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), through its National Library of Medicine (NLM), has developed ClinicalTrials.gov to provide patients, family members and members of the public current information about clinical research studies. See http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/
- Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) - DAWN is a national public health surveillance system that monitors trends in drug-related emergency department visits and deaths. Various reports can be generated from their online database. Visit http://www.dawninfo.net/
- Epidemiology Info/Map - Epi-X, Epi Info and Epi Map are public domain software packages designed for the global community of public health practitioners and researchers. See http://www.cdc.gov/epiinfo/
Given the emergence of numerous viable OSS solutions, the increasing cost of commercial software, and limited funding available to health care institutions, all health care organizations need to seriously evaluate OSS solutions and related benefits as part of their information technology strategy.
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Posted by rsk at July 5, 2006 09:29 PM