Recently, someone contributed a library to help with the webification (<- clearly this is a real word) of VA VistA. In a recent HardHats thread, he expressed his discouragement. I responded and I thought it might help other discouraged developers out there to read me reply. Sometimes the Open Source community just does not respond […]
Category: FOSS Culture
Why so many non-profits?
When I get a good question from a conference or email, I like to answer it in a blog post so that I can just link it in when others ask me the same thing in the future. One of the good questions I got was: Why are there so many “Open Source Health Care” […]
Hack the Road
If you have not heard of Paul Levy yet, then you are obviously new to the world of Health IT blogging. This is a CEO of a major Boston hospital that has commited to blog about his day to day dealings as the top administrator of a hospital. I have already gained many fundamental insights […]
NCVHS Testimony on Meaningful Use
(Update 08-13-09 I have already presented this to NCVHS) Introduction I represent a community of health software developers and clinical users that respect software freedom. This community operates in the legacy of the VA VistA underground railroad. There are several important commercial EHR vendors that respect software freedom they are an important part of our […]
Computer Science should be required for Medical School
Hi, Currently, in Texas, one is required to take Physics I and II and Calculus I (or equivalent stats class) to apply for Medical School. That is not all, of course, but they are requirements. So far, I have never meet a Medical Doctor who needed to use calculus. In fact the only ones that […]
We need a conference
So I am going to run a conference. I figured this was about as bad a time as I could pick, since no one has any travel budget, and people are getting laid off left and right! However, I have been wanting to do this for long enough that I have decided to something about […]
VA VistA is not “Old”
Recently ComputerWorld released an otherwise good article entitled: Old code proves key to modern IT at Midland Memorial Hospital. The first paragraph reads in part: For Midland Memorial Hospital, this came in the form of 1970s-era code unearthed via the Freedom of Information Act. This is really frustrating. VistA is old. But it is not […]
Trust but Verify and Trust but Fork
I have enjoyed participating in the National Dialogue about Health IT. One of the challenges put forward to my suggestion that decision makers should insist on FOSS in Health IT, was the following comment: in terms of privacy, there’s nothing inherent in FOSS that makes it superior to all proprietary products. I have discussed this […]
Vindicated
I must admit. I love the feeling of being proven right. Granted, it appeals to my egotistic streak. (which despite my attempts to suppress it, my wife remains keenly annoyed by). A few weeks ago, at TEPR, I did my regular talk the Health of the Source, which is basically an update on the whole […]
FOSS Sin: Pointless Duplication of Effort
Duplication of effort is viewed as a sin in the Free and Open Source software (FOSS) development community. The whole ethos of FOSS dictates that developers should work together, sharing the improvements they make to software between them. For this reason forking, or starting a redundant project, is often viewed as an attack against the […]