UK leads in new open source health initiatives

UK health informatics experts are leading two new open source initiatives, the recently-approved Open Source Health Informatics Working Group (OSWG) of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) and Open Nurse, the nursing open source network.

The IMIA Open Source Health Informatics Working Group is IMIA’s newest working group, and aims to bring together experts and interested individuals from a wide range of health professions, and with a range of interests in the potential application of open source solutions within their domains of expertise.

Open Nurse, the nursing open source network, is the first international initiative to explore the application of open source software in nursing and nursing informatics.

The IMIA OSWG will explore the implications of the open source approach for all aspects of health informatics and the appropriate use of open source solutions and applications. The OSWG will seek to work closely with other open source groups, to foster work and discussions.

The working Group is co-chaired by Professor Graham Wright, Director of CHIRAD, and chaired by Dr.Jan Vejvalka, of the Department of Applied Informatics, Charles University, Czech Republic.

Open Nurse will provide a collaborative forum within which to explore, promote and facilitate the use of open source software and approaches in nursing, healthcare and nursing informatics.

The development of Open Nurse is being lead by Dr Peter Murray.

Professor Graham Wright is Director of CHIRAD (Centre for Health Informatics Research and Development), which is the UK’s first virtual health informatics research centre and the UK’s first academic institutional member of IMIA.

Dr Peter Murray is a Founding Fellow of CHIRAD and the UK representative to IMIA.

Both Prof. Wright and Dr Murray are nurses and nurse educators with many years’ experience in their fields within the UK and internationally.

IMIA OSWG – www.chirad.info/imiaoswg

Open Nurse – www.open.nurse.info

IMIA – www.imia.org

CHIRAD – www.chirad.info

Contacts:
Graham Wright – graham.wright@chirad.info

Peter Murray – peter.murray@chirad.info

Clinical Information System available VIA WAP

Found this notice on Sourceforge this morning. Looks like another hospital has decided to build their own Opensource clinical solution. The latest is enabling WAP [which makes it available on cell phones!]. The story can be found here:
Care 2002
Looks like an interesting project, especialy with the inclusion of bar code scanning. Editor’s Note: we reported on this project in July, but nice to see it is progressing.

Live from The 2002 AMIA Symposium in San Antonio

We are live from the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Fall 2002 Symposium in San Antonio, Texas. The Symposium’s theme this year is ‘Biomedical Informatics: One Discipline’. The Free/Open Source scene will feature David Forslund’s poster on his OpenEMed based epidemiological information system. As well as other open source posters. I’ll be preaching Free/Open Source for 20 minutes at the Student Working Group Meeting on 11/11/02 at 8:00pm in the El Mirador room, 22nd Floor, Hilton Palacio del Rio hotel. The open source pickings are a little slim this year, probably because OSHCA starts Thursday in Los Angeles.

Free and Open-Source Software in the DOD

This report commissioned by the department of defense is getting quite a bit of coverage because it says that 115 Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) programs as opposed to freeware and proprietary software are already being used in the defense department and “The main conclusion of the analysis was that FOSS software plays a more critical role in the DoD than has generally been recognized…”More often than not, the strongest deciding factors for choosing FOSS products were capability and reliability, with cost being an important but secondary factor…” and that more should be used. What do they know that medicine doesn’t? Perhaps that mega-buck proprietary software is not the way to go. There’s a short executive summary at the beginning that is quite readable with lots of good links.

PBP: ‘Computerized knee’

The Palm Beach Post has a writeup about the performance of a computer controlled leg prosthesis that apparently is a close approximation to an original: ‘”The difference is amazing. It feels so natural. It feels like part of my leg,” said Norton, who has had 15 prosthetic legs since his was blown off in Vietnam 27 years ago.’ Editors note: ‘…we can rebuild him, we have the technology…’

HIMSS Announces National Health Information Infrastructure Task Force

Pat Evans mailto: alric1@telocity.com forwarded an announcement about the formation of a task force by the Health Information Management Systems Society (www.himss.org) for a ‘national health information infrastructure’. Possibly a step in the right direction however, there are some closed source players involved. The full text of the announcement is within.

HIMSS launches task force for national health information network

October 17, 2002

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society yesterday announced a task force charged with developing plans for a national health information infrastructure (NHII). The task force is intended to help health care leaders develop a “comprehensive system capable of providing trustworthy information to all health care decision makers,” HIMSS announced.

The National Health Information Infrastructure Task Force will first examine the current state of health care information technology and identify areas for development. The group is also charged with developing a prototype NHII and incorporating feedback from HIMSS members and other health care leaders.

Task force members come from organizations including Cerner, the Medical Records Institute and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (HIMSS release, 10/16).

The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, an advisory body to HHS, is also examining ways to develop a NHII. In December 2001, NCVHS released a report that outlined ways that government, industry, advocacy groups and consumer organizations could work together to build a health information system (NCVHS report, December 2001).

Student Working Group to Discuss Free/OSS in Medicine

The American Informatics Association (AMIA) Student Working Group will be discussing Free and Open Source Software in medicine at its business meeting, at the November 2002 Fall Conference. The meeting, with a social event following, will be held at 8:00 pm in the El Mirador room, 22nd Floor, Hilton Palacio del Rio hotel, San Antonio, Texas. There will also be a special session: Careers in Medical Informatics (S27) Hosted by the Student Working Group Monday November 11th, 3:30 pm-5:00 pm Room 008 A/B, River Level

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