CCHIT is a threat to small vendors as well as Open source.
I do not have 35K needed to certify application that I spent two years
developing. It's a conscious effort by these big vendors to keep small guys out
of competition.
Love to hear what you find in the Meeting.
Shams
--- On Sat, 3/14/09, Neil Cowles neil.cow...@tolvenhealth.com wrote:
From: Neil Cowles neil.cow...@tolvenhealth.com
Subject: [openhealth] RE: CCHIT meeting FOSS at HIMSS
To: open-ehealth-collaborat...@googlegroups.com, openhealth@yahoogroups.com,
'Hardhats' hardh...@googlegroups.com, 'Mark Leavitt'
mleav...@cchit.org, 'Dennis Wilson' dwil...@cchit.org
Date: Saturday, March 14, 2009, 3:44 PM
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: open-ehealth- collaborative@ googlegroups. com
[mailto:open-ehealth- collaborative@ googlegroups. com] On Behalf Of fred
trotter
Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2009 11:45 AM
To: openhea...@yahoogro ups.com; open-ehealth- collaborative@ googlegroups. com;
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.fredtrot ter.com
-- Forwarded message --
From: Sue Reber sre...@cchit. org
Date: Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 3:07 PM
Subject: FW: CCHIT eNews: Seeking volunteers, Expansion,
Interoperability and Open Source
To: fred trotter fred.trotter@ gmail.com
Cc: Dennis Wilson dwil...@cchit. org
Fred – see below “Commission Hosts Interoperability and Open Source
Roundtables on Certification” in our regular electronic newsletter.
C Sue Reber
Marketing Director, CCHIT
