The Open Steps meeting, to be held near Winchester, UK, on 10-11 February 2004 is the first of a series of three meetings planned for 2004 as part of the activities of the IMIA Open Source and Open Source Nursing Informatics Working Groups. The purpose of the meeting is to identify key issues, opportunities, obstacles, areas of work and research that may be needed, and other relevant aspects, around the potential for using open source software, solutions and approaches within health care, and in particular within health informatics, in the UK and Europe. Further meetings will be held, including one at medinfo2004, to explore international validation of the issues identified.
The Open Steps meeting, to be held near Winchester, UK, on 10-11 February 2004 is the first of a series of three meetings planned for 2004 as part of the activities of the IMIA Open Source and Open Source Nursing Informatics Working Groups. This will be an invitation-only meeting, aimed mainly at the UK, but with some participation from open source colleagues and Working Group members from elsewhere in Europe and the USA.
The purpose of the meeting is to identify key issues, opportunities, obstacles, areas of work and research that may be needed, and other relevant aspects, around the potential for using open source software, solutions and approaches within health care, and in particular within health informatics, in the UK and Europe.
The meeting is funded by the British Computer Society Health Informatics Committee (BCS HIC), and is supported by the IMIA Open Source Working Group, the IMIA-NI Open Source Nursing Informatics Working Group and OSHCA (the Open Source Health Care Alliance).
The Marwell meeting will be followed by a larger meeting to be held at HC2004 in Harrogate in March, which will allow for a wider audience of clinicians, managers, informaticians and other interested parties to attend and explore and expand on the issues raised from the Marwell meeting. A further meeting, to seek international exploration of the issues raised in the first two meetings, will be held at medinfo2004 in San Francisco in September, as part of the IMIA Open Source and Open Source Nursing Informatics Working Groups� meeting. In addition, reports from all of these meetings will be made available through the chirad.info website, and we will encourage further contributions from those unable to attend the Open Steps meetings.
For further information as it becomes available see www.chirad.info/opensteps/marwell01.htm
or email opensteps@chirad.info
Dr Peter Murray
Co-chair, IMIA Open Source Working Group
Chair, IMIA-NI Open Source Nursing Informatics Working Group
