The most pressing order of business for LibertyHSF is the status of FOSS EHR systems in the coming stimulus package.
There are two issues that I believe LibertyHSF must weigh in on. The first is the definition of meaningful use from the FOSS perspective. The second, and more pressing, is the issue of certification, currently only WorldVistA is a CCHIT certified FOSS project and that certification will run out soon. If CCHIT cerfitication is used as a criteria for stimulus funding in the current form of the certification it will be detrimental to FOSS projects. CCHIT has been listening and working with us, but we need to decide if and at what point we need to setup a competing certification method and body. On the 16th CCHIT is hosting a town hall meeting specifically to discuss the FOSS certification isssues. By that time I want to have a semi formal process in place for deciding what the communities (to the degree that LibertyHSF can represent it) response will be. To that end, I am sending an inviation email to individual community members to participate on the important sounding 'meaningful use and certification commitee'. If you get an second email from me within the hour, you were invited, if you did not you were not. But my criteria for inclusion in this group is merely that you have A. Contributed to the discussion so far in a meaningful way or B. You are supporting a FOSS EHR in more than one live deployment. If you have talked to me about this issue either in person or over email over the last few months then I have tried to include you. If you meet these criteria and you want to be formally involved then please email me today or tomorrow requesting that I include you. I am inviting several people who I want to specifically point out in advance of their acceptance of the invitation because I know that they might be controversial. The first is Greg Caulton. I have been very critical of PatientOS in the past and I see no reason why I will not be -personally- critical of them in the future. But LibertyHSF is not 'freds party' but intended to be representative of the entire FOSS community. Whatever else I have to say about PatientOS it does appear to be in the process of becoming a ligit FOSS project. The reason that I feel Caultons/PatientOS inclusion may be controversial is that the project has the CCHIT feature set as an implict design document. In short PatientOS has implicitly endorsed the CCHIT definition of what an EHR is, as far as I know, they are the only FOSS EHR project to have taken this stand. While I disagree with this and other basic design decisions that PatientOS has made I can see no reason why PatientOS should not get a vote at this table. The second is Dr. Kibbe. I am inviting Dr. Kibbe specifically because he is an effective critic of the CCHIT model generally, and because he has participated in our community in the past. Recall that he attempted to promote a FOSS EHR for AAFP. If he accepts the bridge I hope that he will serve as a bridge to other groups who are frustrated with CCHIT and are wondering what to do. Last but certainly not least, I plan on including Dennis Wilson from CCHIT. Dennis is the project leader for Laika and is therefore a full member of the FOSS healthcare community. Better than anyone else at CCHIT he personally understands the implications of what a FOSS license implies, and what running a FOSS project is like. Most importantly we need a person from CCHIT to give balance to our discussion. I am inviting Dr. Kibbe and Dennis to specifically be outside advisors to our group, although they will have full access to any meetings or mailinglists, they will not be included in a final vote, unless the committee itself decides to overrule me on this stance. I have not idea if either Dennis, Dr. Kibbe or Greg will accept my invitation, but I wanted to let everyone know that they would be invited. Besides them, I am inviting the usual suspects. I have been advised to err on the side of being too inclusive with LibertyHSF, and the list of people that I am inviting to this is intended to be an initial stab at doing just that. All those in favor remain silent, all those opposed bitch loudly. -FT -- Fred Trotter http://www.fredtrotter.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
