Okay...I'm getting jitters for my presentation next week. But here's what
I plan to present:
One, that open source is a promising development in medical informatics.
Two, that the initiative needs some boost and leadership (maybe from NLM?)
I will ask support for:
Common Open Source Medical Objects (COSMOS) -- standard building blocks
for EMR construction
Phase 1: Convene all existing open source projects and create a common
representation of what they currently have using UML
Phase 2: Present this to the openhealth list (RFC)--- modify as needed.
Phase 3: Maintain the model in a repository and provide tools (open
source) for using it. I particularly like the way
www.objectsbydesign.com
(http://www.objectsbydesign.com/tools/modeling_tools.html) describes how
parts of the model can be turned on or off by these tools.
To quote:
"A repository is generally built on top of a database, which provides data
sharing and concurrency control features. By providing locking and
read-only access, the repository permits one developer[the alliance or
maybe NLM] to own the model
while allowing others to read the model and its components, as well as to
incorporate these components into their own designs. Important: The tool
should allow you to pull in only the components that you want from another
model, without having to import the entire model [key point in using
UML]."
This would be consistent with the desiderata Gregory just posted.
Question: We know source code can be GPL'd...but how about UML?
Alvin
