Open Source Aims To Reach Milestone In Newcastle

NHS England is holding a key open source open day in Newcastle tomorrow. Ahead of the event, EHI editor Jon Hoeksma argues it will have a lot to celebrate; but some acid tests still lie ahead.

A crop of NHS open source initiatives will be showcased on Wednesday at a watershed event in Newcastle.  Developers, suppliers and NHS evangelists will show a range of proof of concepts and working software, some now in live use.  Organised by NHS England’s open source team, the Open Source Open Day marks a milestone in efforts to kick-start a series of open source initiatives and prove they have the potential to gain market share in an NHS used to proprietary software.

The success of open source replacements for key sections of NHS national infrastructure and services - the Spine and booking – has helped to build credibility for open source clinical software.  The replacement for NHSmail, software that will be used by almost everyone working in the NHS, may well be open source. But there is still a huge challenge to create vehicles to support the development of open source products, and to persaude trusts to accept them.

On show in Newcastle will be diverse clinical initiatives. These include: OpenEPR, OPENeP (electronic prescribing), Open-eObs, OpenPACS, OpenEyes, OpenMinds and OpenDental...