drbowen wrote on Monday, June 07, 2010:
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act) provided a mandate for the study of Open Source Systems and how they can be used to support the Emergency Access Health Clinics in the United States. The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago was awarded a contract from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to study Open Source Health Systems.
I was contacted by the The National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago for a telephone interview to provide information for the OpenEMR Project as part of their Study and Report on Open Source Health Information Technology Systems. This study, evaluates the availability, functionality, interoperability, and value of health information technologies classified as “open source” for Federal safety net providers. The results and conclusions ensuing from this study will be submitted as a report to Congress by the Secretary of HHS by October 1, 2010.
I gave the NORC a summary of the creation of the OpenEMR project, its goals, relative costs to provide the software, training and support. In addition I summarized the current state of the Meaningful Use Project including what still needs to be done to complete certification. The interview was in depth and took about 45 minutes. We covered security issues, vendor quality, and the quality control systems in place as our software is developed. At the end of the interview I was asked what could be done to improve the utilization of Open Source Health Information Software. I urged the Federal Government to loosen their restrictions on monetary aid to the various open source projects and to provide marketing on the relative advantages of open source projects like ours.
This study when completed will be presented to Congress on October 1, 2010. After review by Congress we will be provided a copy of the study as it is made available to the public.
Go! Team!
Sincerely,
Samuel T. Bowen, MD
http://openmedsoftware.org