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U.S. Government Crafted OSS

Posted by Zonk on from the gifts-from-above dept.

matthewg writes "According to the New York Times the federal government has developed an open-source medical records system. It was originally developed for the Department of Veterans Affairs, and doctors started obtaining it under FOIA requests. Some good information on the process of converting it from an internal project to a deployable system exists, and how its open nature has made the system better is available at the WorldVista site." From the article: "Medicare has not estimated what its software giveaway is worth. But Duncan Pringle, chief Vista technologist at Perot Systems, said that each doctor in a practice paid about $20,000 to $25,000 to get started with a commercial system, including costs of software, a license fee charged to each doctor, installation and servicing."

8 of 247 comments (clear)

  1. Shocking! by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 2, Funny

    I also hear Microsoft Vista will be Open Source as well ;)

    Oh shit, sorry, its not April 1st.

    --
    liqbase :: faster than paper
    1. Re:Shocking! by DigiShaman · · Score: 2, Funny

      Windows has always been Open Source. Just be sure not to patch it. *rimshot*

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
  2. Note to self: by JUSTONEMORELATTE · · Score: 5, Funny

    Doctors are paying US$20k per head for software installs.

    Nice to know in case my current day job comes to an unfortunate end.

  3. Now I understand... by blcamp · · Score: 4, Funny


    How the U.S. Government has been saying "asta la VISTA" to our taxpayer dollars.

    Sorry. Had to say it...

    --
    The problem with socialism is that they always run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher
    1. Re:Now I understand... by justforaday · · Score: 2, Funny

      You have to admit that this makes it really easy to pick out which slashdotters are little w4r3z m0nk33z.

      --
      I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
  4. Re:Vista by EasyTarget · · Score: 5, Funny

    Microsoft are like, so gonna sue their asses.

    I mean it's incredible, the new windoze name has only been known for half a day, and already evil linux commies are trying to cash in on their intellectual properties.

    --
    "Oops, I always forget the purpose of competition is to divide people into winners and losers." - Hobbes
  5. Stuck in a rut by It+doesn't+come+easy · · Score: 3, Funny

    OK, here's some flamebait.

    An open souce project that provides great value and fills a really important need that is hard to install and maintain.

    Where have I heard that before?

    --
    The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
  6. Re:Vista is written in mumps by schon · · Score: 2, Funny

    MUMPS was developed by a MD (patholigist IIRC)

    Well, that makes sense - it certainly is pathological. :o)