Advocates battle to keep open source in HIT reform efforts

As providers line up to take advantage of stimulus funds encouraging health IT use, some IT pros say a crucial issue is being overlooked. Open-source technology advocates say that the existing stimulus bill rewards providers for going with proprietary health IT solutions, and by default, discourages them from implementing well-known, highly-respected solutions like the VistA open-source EMR.

At least some providers remain interested in the open-source approach. According to a recent study by open source data integration solutions provider Talend, 59 percent of open-source users said such solutions were easy to use, and 53.9 percent said they were impressed by the tools' performance.

And despite an apparent lack of recognition by government officials, efforts to leverage open-source software to encourage interoperability between providers are continuing to flourish.

One recent example is a project by the Open Health Tools Foundation, a non-profit group that is planning to develop server-based technology allowing interoperability among differing health information systems. The project is being overseen by Misys Open Source Solutions, which is building server-side components to integrate healthcare enterprise profiles.

The project, which rolled out in beta this February, is designed to meet what officials say is one of reform's key goals: to make data sharing between providers affordable. Integrating systems from various players has been a major stumbling block in building health information exchanges to date, backers note.

All that being said, most providers will still go with the more costly proprietary systems by giants like Cerner, Epic and McKesson if the government gives them its CCHIT seal of approval. (Though for what it's worth, the market already has WorldVista, an ambulatory EMR based on the VistA platform.)

To learn more about this issue:
- read this TMCNet.com piece

Related Articles:
Are open source EMRs a threat to HIMSS?
Mayo, IBM look to open source to promote EMR extraction efforts
MS vs. open source: the battle gets hotter

Post a comment