01046nas a2200145   4500008004100000022001400041245005600055210005300111260004200164520060600206100001700812700001700829700001800846856003600864       2008                        eng d  a1913-610200aEditorial: Health and Life Sciences (November 2008)0 aEditorial Health and Life Sciences November 2008  aOttawabTalent First Networkc11/20083 aThe length of Wikipedia's list of open source healthcare software  may come as a surprise to many readers. This issue of the OSBR provides an excellent introduction to the complexities and interoperability issues associated with healthcare software and the role open source can play in helping to resolve these issues. This month's authors also provide insight into an open source projects that follows open standards, lessons learned from providing a reference implementation, the benefits of a healthcare ecosystem, and the value of open source projects working closely with standards organizations.1 aLavigne, Dru1 aBarry, Brian1 aTanner, Peter  uhttp://timreview.ca/article/20201648nas a2200121   4500008004100000022001400041245005100055210004700106260004200153520127800195100001701473856003601490       2008                        eng d  a1913-610200aThe Emerging Role of Open Source in Healthcare0 aEmerging Role of Open Source in Healthcare  aOttawabTalent First Networkc11/20083 aHealthcare has been characterized as a multi-trillion dollar cottage industry. It is highly fragmented, labour intensive, barely connected, extremely competitive, and has many different vendors and proprietary solutions. The rising cost of healthcare is straining budgets at all levels of government and imposing financial burdens on corporations and individuals alike. Against this backdrop, legitimate concerns about privacy have led to a plethora of regulations requiring complex administrative, physical and technical infrastructure to safeguard sensitive health information. Governments are attempting to impose standards and specifications from the top down to improve efficiency in healthcare delivery. These standards are broad, complex and, for the most part, lack implementations. In short, things are in a bit of a mess.

A consensus is emerging around two initiatives that promise to improve the current situation. The first is to foster widespread adoption of Electronic Health Records. The second is to improve accessibility and interoperability between EHR systems. In this article, we present Open Health Tools, an open source ecosystem where members of the health and information technology professions can collaborate to build interoperable EHR systems.1 aBarry, Brian  uhttp://timreview.ca/article/203