01648nas a2200121   4500008004100000022001400041245005100055210004700106260004200153520127800195100001701473856003601490       2008                        eng d  a1913-610200aThe Emerging Role of Open Source in Healthcare0 aEmerging Role of Open Source in Healthcare  aOttawabTalent First Networkc11/20083 aHealthcare has been characterized as a multi-trillion dollar cottage industry. It is highly fragmented, labour intensive, barely connected, extremely competitive, and has many different vendors and proprietary solutions. The rising cost of healthcare is straining budgets at all levels of government and imposing financial burdens on corporations and individuals alike. Against this backdrop, legitimate concerns about privacy have led to a plethora of regulations requiring complex administrative, physical and technical infrastructure to safeguard sensitive health information. Governments are attempting to impose standards and specifications from the top down to improve efficiency in healthcare delivery. These standards are broad, complex and, for the most part, lack implementations. In short, things are in a bit of a mess.

A consensus is emerging around two initiatives that promise to improve the current situation. The first is to foster widespread adoption of Electronic Health Records. The second is to improve accessibility and interoperability between EHR systems. In this article, we present Open Health Tools, an open source ecosystem where members of the health and information technology professions can collaborate to build interoperable EHR systems.1 aBarry, Brian  uhttp://timreview.ca/article/203