Open source health IT solutions
An open source developer community, Open Health Tools (OHT), has announced a collaborative effort to develop common healthcare IT products and services.
Its 26 members consist of national health agencies, government-funded
organisations and agencies, major healthcare providers, international
standards organisations and companies from Australia, Canada, the
United Kingdom and the United States.
The members include NHS Connecting for Health, BT, IBM, Oracle and
HL7, among others. Formed in November 2007, OHT's mission is to provide
software tools and components that will accelerate the implementation
of electronic health information interoperability platforms, which
improve patient quality of care, safety and access to electronic health
records (EHR).
The results will be available under an open source agreement so
anyone may use them to provide interoperable healthcare platforms that
will link clinics, hospitals, pharmacies and other points of care to
make healthcare systems more efficient.
OHT's health interoperability framework will use standardised,
open interfaces and a set of reusable software components that can be
assembled into systems and products by health systems and vendors.
OHT is open to membership from any organisation and the results of
member efforts are made available under a commercially friendly open
source license.
OHT's governance, legal and intellectual property policies,
development processes, and marketing and business practices are based
on the Eclipse Foundation model. Any individual, organisation or
hospital can build applications using the Foundation's framework
whether or not the entity is a member — free of charge.
Skip McGaughey, executive director of OHT, said: "Advancements in
medical procedures and patient care have changed the way the world
views health and wellness. However, modern healthcare information
technology has not kept pace with the complexity of today's healthcare
systems. There is a critical need for interoperability between
healthcare systems and the consistent and seamless exchange of accurate
data."
Research points to a potential annual savings of US$ 77.8 billion
in the United States alone from the introduction of healthcare
information exchange and interoperability.
As part of its commitment to OHT, NHS Connecting for Health has
contributed an XML processing engine and associated personnel and is
leading the Health Level Seven (HL7) tools development project.
Ken Lunn, director of NHS Data Standards and Products, part of the
NHS Connecting for Health Technology Office and a board member of OHT,
said: "Interoperability is a core aspect of the National Programme for
IT and one of the enablers for safe and secure access to patient
information whenever and wherever it is needed. The quality of patient
care is dependent on the quality of the information that authorised
healthcare professionals can access."
