Eric Raymond: Downturn May Benefit Linux

LinuxToday has an article about recent layoffs at VA Linux and what to expect in the future by noted author and open source advocate Eric Raymond of Cathedral and the Bazaar fame. Raymond writes ‘…There is actually one good thing for us about economic slumps. During them, IT departments and software users in general feel pressure to cut costs. That makes low-cost and free software more attractive. Over the next few months you can expect to see a lot of submarine Linux deployments suddenly surfacing as managers realize that they’ll look *good* on their quarterlies if they cut their licensing and service costs, and as the techies working for them get that message and fess up to how many NT boxes they’ve been replacing by stealth. So the downturn isn’t all bad news for us, by any means. We just need to keep doing what we’re doing, the best work we can. And when the economy picks up again, we will have gained by it…’

FreePM 1.0b to ship in March

FreePM project leader Tim Cook has this to say about FreePM’s future directions:

‘…We are currently testing FreePM on Zope 2.3.1b1. If all goes well, it will be the platform that our 1.0b ships on next month. It’s looking good so far. The feature list for FreePM 1.0b is coming together nicely. After more market research and lessons learned at the Fresno Summits, the list of features for the first version of FreePM has been pared down… His ‘future directions’ statement in its entirety follows.

FreePM is moving forward.

We are very happy with the Python/Zope platform because it brings such a robust and varied assortment of pre-built tools. Granted, learning to use Zope has not been an easy task. But like a true open source project it has gotten easier to learn and more stable with each new release. For more information about the future of Zope I invite you to read: http://dev.zope.org/Resources/ZopeDirections.html

We are currently testing FreePM on Zope 2.3.1b1. If all goes well, it will be the platform that our 1.0b ships on next month. It’s looking good so far.

The feature list for FreePM 1.0b is coming together nicely. After more market research and lessons learned at the Fresno Summits, the list of features for the first version of FreePM has been pared down.

We have determined that it is more beneficial to produce a GOOD electronic medical/health record system without a lot of practice management functions than it is to incorporate these functions at the expense of the core patient record. By using the datastorage and communications features of Zope, a link to virtually any practice management system can be built to provide bidirectional data exchange.

I trust that everyone on the mailing list will agree with this position. I sincerely believe that in the long run this change in scope will create a better more useful product that will fill
the needs of many physicians offices.

There is still some work to be done on the template generator before the promised 0.6b release. I hope to see it finished up this week.

Thank you all,

—
Tim Cook, President – FreePM,Inc.

http://www.FreePM.com Office: (901) 884-4126

New MedicationManager, Try it now at:

http://www.freepm.org:8080/FreePM

The Register: Sharp Tools Up with Linux To Fight Palm

The Register is reporting that Sharp will be putting Linux on its Zaurus PDA’s: ‘…The next Zaurus – provisionally due in the US before Christmas… will ship with Linux…Essentially, it’s all about competing with Palm and co. by providing buyers with the scope to download and add applications to the basic handheld. The idea isn’t to appeal to individual buyers, rather to target corporate customers who want to provide employees with PDAs that can hook into their networks…’

Modern Healthcare: AMGA and Aventis Will Develop Data Warehouse

Thanks to Barry Herman for this story from Modern Healthcare 2001-02-12 print version: ‘…The American Medical Group Association is teaming with an international pharmaceutical giant to develop a data warehouse that could contain sensitive information on as many as 37 million Americans. The AMGA and Aventis Pharmaceuticals say they will create a national database including a wide range of medical information, from laboratory tests and diagnoses to outpatient claims and prescription-drug use…’ Wonder if they’ll be using free and open source software? Hope so.

CNET: Microsoft Executive Says Linux Threatens Innovation

Thanks to Mary Kratz for this link: CNET.com is reporting on Microsoft Executive Jim Allchin remarks that: ‘…Windows operating-system chief, Jim Allchin, says that freely distributed software code such as rival Linux could stifle innovation and that legislators need to understand the threat. The result will be the demise of both intellectual property rights and the incentive to spend on research and development…Microsoft has told U.S. lawmakers of its concern while discussing protection of intellectual property rights…Brian Behlendorf, founder of open-source company CollabNet Inc., said most companies that use the open-source development model do retain the rights to some of their intellectual property. ”I think Microsoft is trying to paint the open-source community as being fascist; that all software have has to be free, or none of it can be,” said Behlendorf, whose company helps businesses run their own open-source projects…’

Multi-Platform Development Resources

Horst Herb of the GNUmed project wrote in about this resource page for multi-platform development using wxWindows. ‘…the current wxStudio project, which is developing a Microsoft Visual Studio like IDE using wxWindows. Or the wxCVS project, which will be a multi-platform graphical interface for the CVS system. Or wxDesigner, an RAD tool developed by Robert Roebling to build wxWindows dialogs. As you can see, the wxWindows community is growing, so take a look at it the next time you have a multi-platform project in the wings…

Bio_Bulletin_Board Discussion List Opens

The BIO Bulletin Board is a newly created, Mailman-based listserver designed to facilitate discussions among the Open Source
bio-informatics community. The mailing list has been implemented in response to numerous requests for an e-mail based alternative to our ‘Ask The Open Lab’ web-forum, which lacks this facility. It is intended to provide a convenient resource and archive for members of the bioinformatics community. Free / Open Source software products and service announcements are encouraged; however, advertising commercial software products and services, or spamming of any kind is NOT permitted. With this post, LMN is also introducing its ‘BioInformatics’ subject area.

Latest Future-Proof Information Systems Paper

Brainiac Thomas Beale at the Good Electronic Health Record (GEHR) has his latest (HTML draft here, PDF draft here) of his paper on ‘Future Proof Information Systems’. With an Introduction here: ‘…the usual legacy IS systems…have a limited lifespan and are expensive to modify and extend in order to accommodate changing needs…The approach proposed here is a rigorous knowledge-modelling one, and is founded on a basic tenet: the separation of domain and technical concerns in information systems. In real terms, this translates to:

  • The removal of domain concepts from concrete software and database models, into independently managed, standardised vocabularies and domain-specific models.
  • Re-engineering the software and database as a knowledge representation (KR) system architecture, designed to process information by using externally supplied domain definitions…’

Fresno III: Commercial Model Has Failed

Fresno III was recently held to discuss free and open source medical software. The full press release follows. Some of the highlights of the meeting where as follows:

  • Agreement reached that commercial model of software development in family medicine/general practice has failed.
  • Continued collaboration and partnership is advantageous.
  • A model for patient involvement with the EHR was agreed.
  • A framework for further international collaboration has been achieved, although funding sources remain to be secured.
  • Specific aspects of primary care computerization needs are better met in the UK than the USA and vice versa, though neither fully reflects the concepts identified in GEHR (Good Electronic Health Record)

Summary Statement and Press Release

Fresno III OS-IHI Working Group

Feb 2-4th 2001

In summary; its Open Source, Output vs. Input and Object oriented programming that were the “kernels” of this meeting. Here are the summary points as framed by Dr. Ellis and Dr. Pepper. All addendums and comments appreciated.

In Attendance:

Dr Alex Caldwell Family Practitioner. Tulare CA. USA (alcald@psnw.com)

Tim Cook President FreePM. Miami, Florida. USA (tim@freepm.com)

Dr Nikki Ellis Research Fellow. University of Manchester. UK (nikki.ellis@dial.pipex.com)

Dr Chason Hayes Orthopaedic Surgeon. Charlotte N Carolina. USA (chasonh@freepm.com)

Peter Hudson Nurse Practitioner. Fresno USA (pjhudson@thesocket.com)

Dr Adrian Midgley General Practitioner. Homefield Surgery. Exeter (midgley@mednetics.org)

MJ Midgley Nurse Practitioner. Homefield Surgery. Exeter UK (mj@92tr.freeserve.co.uk)

Dr David Pepper Assoc.Prof UCSF@Fresno. CEO-MAP Masters (drpepper@medmapper.com)

Dr Robert Shepard Medical Director. Helena Healthcare. Montana USA (bob@rmshep.mt.net)

In addition to this core group, an additional 20 people attended an evening session that further explored the issues being raised and discussed by the core.

Format

The third in a series of Open Source International Health Informatics (OS-IHI) retreats was held in Fresno, California during the 2nd to the 4th February 2001 to explore ways to improve electronic health care record keeping for outpatient primary care practitioners.

  • A review of six primary care systems, and associated decision support software, was undertaken.
  • Progress to date on the Open Source (OS) projects represented by those present was discussed.
  • A demonstration of the TkFP GUI Front end was held.

Key Points

  • Agreement reached that commercial model of software development in family medicine/general practice has failed.
  • Specific aspects of primary care computerization needs are better met in the UK than the USA and vice versa, though neither fully reflects the concepts identified in
    GEHR (Good Electronic Health Record)

  • Continued collaboration and partnership is advantageous.
  • Agreement that an Object Orientated approach to systems development will be explored within an Open Source environment as a likely emerging and powerful technology.
  • A framework for further international collaboration has been achieved, although funding sources remain to be secured.
  • A model for patient involvement with the EHR was agreed.
  • Agreement that the unique needs of health informatics dictate specific requirements for Output versus Input modes for viewing data.

Outcomes

Submission for Theatre Style demonstration to AMIA 2001 (Fall Congress)

Submission for Knowledge Sharing House Panel to Medinfo2001: Commercial research aspects of OS-IHI

Two Papers in the OS&IHI series have been drafted and will be completed and submitted for publication (First paper in series: Open Source & International Health Informatics: Placebo or Panacea? Ellis et al submitted to medinfo2001)

  • Open Source & International Health Informatics: Consideration Of Object Orientated Design
  • Open Source & International Health Informatics: The Business Case
  • Application of MAP-Masters to the NIST (www.atp.nist.gov) for funding

Areas Requiring Further Work

In keeping with the OS Development model, anybody who can offer assistance in these areas would be welcomed to either participate in this work virtually or to attend future retreats.

  • An Open Access/Target international drug preparation database
  • An Open Access/Target clinical coding system or thesaurus

Further Information

Please contact anybody listed as in attendance at the head of this statement for further information on any aspect outlined above.

Support from B-M-Squibb is graciously appreciated for the speakers expenses.

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