Fred, I will be attending the meeting with CCHIT in person on April 6, 2009 at HIMSS.
Neil Cowles Tolven www.tolven.org -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of fred trotter Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2009 11:45 AM To: [email protected]; [email protected]; Hardhats; Mark Leavitt; Dennis Wilson Subject: CCHIT meeting FOSS at HIMSS Hello, Recently, I was asked by several community members to begin 'activating' the community at large against certain threats to FOSS in healthcare. Dr. Valdes and I have been planning on doing this for years, and, in our own ways, have both begun to attempt to make the public aware of the issues that our community (FOSS Health IT) faces. Dr. Valdes has been publishing several articles on the subject at http://linuxmednews.com, which have meet with considerable success. Including slashdotting: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/10/2055229 While Ignacio has been taking a hard-line Free Software approach, I have been (in a twist for me) taking an 'Open Source' approach. The people who approached me at DOHCS were unanimous in their belief that what FOSS needed from the government was merely a level playing field, so that we could compete, and win, on our own merits. The largest single threat to the future of FOSS in healthcare in the US is the certification process mandated by the stimulus act. The language provides funding for -certified- EHR systems and eventually penalties for not using -certified- EHR systems. The best established certification body is CCHIT. They have not been named as the certification body, but they are likely lobbying for that role. However, CCHIT has had an anti-open source stance for years. For years, I and other activists in the community have chosen to largely ignore this bias. Simply because CCHIT was an optional certification. Now, things have changed. It is possible that the government will mandating a certification program that is either CCHIT or similarly unfriendly to FOSS. Recently I submitted my complaints to Dennis Wilson (associated with both FOSS Laika and employed by CCHIT) who put me in touch with Mark Leavitt. As a main result of that discussion, Mark has agreed to have a meeting with the community-at-large about this issue at HIMSS (please see the forwarded message from the CCHIT e-newsletter below). Granted, this is like offering to meet with the Rebel Alliance at the annual Death Star conference. However, Mark has also agreed to provide some kind of remote access capability for those of us who cannot afford the time, cost or moral compromise required to attend HIMSS. The meeting will be held at HIMSS on Monday, April 6, Room 10d, Session #2 2:00 3:00 PM I have heard from several of the HIMSS 'regulars' in our community that they will be going. However, it is critical that we have a show of force within the community from precisely those people who have the most to lose with regards to the certification issue: small support companies and individual consultants. I am going on vacation next week, so I will be silent on the mailing lists for a while. Would someone else please take the lead on coordinating the sharing of hotel rooms, etc etc. If you are already going and you would not mind 'putting someone up' so that they could attend this conference, please speak up. I have space for one in my hotel room starting Sunday. If you live in Chicago and you have a couch to spare, please speak up. We are becoming more 'organized' as we speak. Please watch this space for more announcements on how you can participate to keep the US government from making anti-FOSS blunders now and in the future. Best, -Fred Trotter http://www.fredtrotter.com ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Sue Reber <[email protected]> Date: Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 3:07 PM Subject: FW: CCHIT eNews: Seeking volunteers, Expansion, Interoperability and Open Source To: fred trotter <[email protected]> Cc: Dennis Wilson <[email protected]> Fred see below Commission Hosts Interoperability and Open Source Roundtables on Certification in our regular electronic newsletter. C Sue Reber Marketing Director, CCHIT Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology 503.288.5876 office | 503.703.0813 cell | 503.287.4613 fax [email protected] --- majority of newsletter removed for brevity --- Commission Hosts Interoperability and Open Source Roundtables on Certification In addition to its annual Town Hall at the upcoming HIMSS09 Annual Conference in Chicago, the Certification Commission will be hosting two technical roundtables, co-located with the conference, for health IT vendors and developers. The first, Interoperability 09 and Beyond: a look at CCHITs roadmap for the future, will present the Commissions interoperability roadmap and explore the standards and testing tools with which developers need to be familiar. The second, Open Source Forum: a dialogue on certification for open source EHRs, is designed to continue the discussion with open source developers with an interest in certifying EHRs. This session will allow an open exchange of the challenges and opportunities for making certified open source EHRs available to providers. The times and locations of sessions are below. Both Health IT Technical Roundtables will also be available via free remote access. Details will be available at cchit.org prior to the date. CCHIT Town Hall at HIMSS09 Annual Conference Sunday, April 5 Room W192b, McCormick Convention Center, Chicago 9:45 - 11:15 AM Health IT Technical Roundtables at Hyatt McCormick Conference Center Monday, April 6 Room 10d, Hyatt McCormick Conference Center, Chicago Session #1 1:00 2:00 PM Interoperability 09 and Beyond: a look at CCHITs roadmap for the future Session #2 2:00 3:00 PM Open Source Forum: a dialogue on certification for open source EHRs --- sections removed for brevity ---- Contact : [email protected] | www.cchit.org Copyright © 2005-2009 Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Contact ________________________________ If you no longer wish to receive these emails, please reply to this message with "Unsubscribe" in the subject line or simply click on the following link: Unsubscribe ________________________________ Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology 200 S Wacker Dr Suite 3100 Chicago, Illinois 60606 US Read the VerticalResponse marketing policy. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Open eHealth Collaborative" group. 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