Developing Healthcare Applications using Common Open Source ...

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Developing Healthcare Applications using Common Open Source ... this method of software development. ... open source software like the Linux operating.
Developing Healthcare Applications using Common Open Source Medical Objects (COSMOS) Alvin B. Marcelo, M.D. National Library of Medicine High Performance Computing and Communications Bethesda, Maryland Since the first presentation on Open Source at the 1999 American Medical Informatics Association, much interest has been noted about this method of software development. Although mainstream information technology industries have been employing it for more than a decade, the health information management industry is only beginning to pay more attention to this phenomenon. This newly acquired attention is presumably an effect of the rising popularity of open source software like the Linux operating system and the Apache webserver. In addition to the economic freedom provided by open source applications, there is also the intellectual liberty that is most appealing to developers.

This paper aims to propose a two-pronged approach to health application development using open source methodology that will address most of the issues. The first method proposes the pooling of common objects used in healthcare -Common Open Source Medical Objects (COSMOS). The second method proposes local in-house application development using these common objects. Building software with COSMOS would provide the guarantee that interoperability will be maintained at the application layer. Open source application development is a relatively new technology to enter the health information management field. Since health is a mission-critical industry, open source software will necessarily have to undergo numerous validation studies in order to gain recognition of the domain experts. A united open source developer community would be a critical requisite to this success.

Despite these obvious advantages, however, the open source initiative is failing to take the health industry by storm. Stakeholders are at best viewing the phenomenon at a distance. Issues like reliability, portability, and interoperability are those most often raised in discussions.

1067-5027/00/$5.00 C 2000 AMIA, Inc.

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