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Senate Bill Calls For Open Source Electronic Health Records

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the wider-adoption-can-only-help dept.

An anonymous reader optimistically writes that new legislation has been introduced in the Senate that would call for a nationwide adoption of electronic health records built on open source. The bill does not seek to supplant proprietary alternatives, but instead to either augment or offer a cost effective alternative. "'We need advancements in health information technology across the board to improve the quality of care Americans receive,' said Senator Rockefeller, Chairman of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care. 'To make this happen, we need universal access to affordable and interoperable health information technology — from small, rural health clinics to large, urban hospitals.'"

4 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. Test it with the military first by HasselhoffThePaladin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They should implement this in the military first as a test. It's always the biggest pain in the ass to hand-carry your medical and dental records when you undergo a permanent change of station. Of course, paper backups would be a great idea in the initial stages.

  2. A person should own their health record by presidenteloco · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The information should legally belong to the patient, and health care providers and government should be required to create a system whereby the health records follow the person for life, regardless of jurisdiction or health care provider.

    So the records would live in an independent information infrastructure, not owned by any particular health care provider.

    And of course open standards would be needed to ensure interoperability of info systems that dealt with the records.

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    Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
  3. Why open Source not open Standard? by mdf356 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't see why it matters who implements someone's electronic health records (open source, Joe's Software Shack, Bill's Multi-National Software Emporium, etc.)

    But what the Government should work on (and it's their job to do so) is making sure there is a single open standard format for the records, so that they can be used and transfered between providers with different systems. Otherwise electronic documents can easily end up worse than paper.

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    Terrorist, bomb, al Qaeda, nuclear, yellowcake, kill, assassinate. Carnivore is dead... long live Echelon.
  4. Call for Standards, not Open Source by spotchka · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What they are calling for is a set of standards (i.e. What is a Medical Record?), not an open source solution. Once they can define exactly what comprises a medical record and standardize it (ANSI, HL7, etc.), the open source community usually takes care of itself.

    Poor understanding of IT jargon by a politician's office...what a shock...