Over at Curing Healthcare, Steve Beller has created a next generation personal health record that looks pretty interesting. He posts on the ins and outs of open source copyright and asks for comments and suggestions.

After observing some discussion threads in several lists lately, I believe we need to remind ourselves that Care2x:

a) does not and will not discriminate any nation, continent, language, race, religion, culture and socio-political-economic systems.

b) is not a religion and will stay neutral to religious beliefs.

c) is not a political platform and should not be abused as such.

d) is not a political tool and should not be abused as such.

e) is not a weapon and should not be abused as such.

f) has the PATIENT as its center of activities.

g) will respect other “standards” even if Care2x may or may not propose its own standard soon or in the future.

h) will try to integrate other “standards” (e.g. HL7) inside an abstraction layer (similar to ADODB in principle).

i) will not enter into a competitive race against similar projects but instead try to create a channel to communicate with their applications.

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Also, Care2x’s mailing lists:

a) are democratic and every subscriber can post his own opinion

b) are not censored

c) subscribers should be responsible for their statements

d) subcribers are free to rebutt or counter any posted statement

d) subscribers’/members’ statements DO NOT automatically constitute the project’s principles.

A little known fact:
There are people from North America, USA and Autralia who are interested in implementing Care2x in their health institutions and are hoping to have it accepted widely in their countries. Interestingly, these people are modest, humble and chose to keep low profile.

Respectfully,
Elpidio Latorilla

Interesting and well written, this article first appeared in The Osler Outlook and discusses the legal liability of NOT using technology: ‘…T.J. Hooper v. Northern Barge was a famous case in its day, holding the tugs liable for their failure to have on board state-of-the-art technology. In 1932, that “state-of-the-art technology” was a radio receiving set, capable of picking up the weather broadcasts of the fledgling National Weather Service, which had taken to broadcasting maritime weather reports twice a day. The Hooper and the Montrose had on board what was customary in the merchant marine of 1932 – a transmitter, to call “Mayday” – but the court said that there are precautions so imperative that no industry or trade may be excused for their lack, even if the disregard be universal, and that the newness of the technology is no defence…’ How liable are physicians if they don’t use computerized ordering or records?

The Washington Post reports that the House of representative has passed by a wide 418-6 margin a bill to ‘create a voluntary system for tracking medical errors, promising confidentiality to hospitals and doctors and assurances the information will not go to lawyers for use in malpractice suits…’ If this is signed into law, the question is what softwares will be used for the database? Will it be free/open source so that it can be subjected to 3rd party forensic analysis in the event of a security breach?

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