March 23rd, 2009
Open source to meet with CCHIT at HIMSS
Fred Trotter reports he will have a public meeting with CCHIT concerning open source in health care at the upcoming HIMSS conference in Chicago.
In a post about the meeting, Trotter laid out some of the chief concerns open source has with the current standards set-up:
- HIMSS’ Electronic Health Records group does not allow open source members.
- HIMSS has lobbied against open source in the past, including the VistA software used by the VA.
- CCHIT, which certifies EHR standards, has long had a bias against open source and has close ties to HIMSS.
Trotter’s biggest concern is language in the Obama Stimulus that only covers “certified” systems, with penalties coming in later for those whose systems are not certified.
Since CCHIT is the organization that presently certifies solutions, and it locks out open source, Trotter fears open source is being locked out of the health care market.
I suspect that, had Republicans won the 2008 election this is precisely what would have happened — open source would have been locked out. But the President’s appointees have, at minimum, an accepting attitude toward open source, and some have advocated for it in the past.
The meeting is scheduled for 2 PM on April 6 at the HIMSS Conference.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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