Latest 'Open Source' & eHealth News from Europe

The news just keeps coming about the widespread acceptance and increasingly rapid deployment and use of 'open source' software solutions by local and national government agencies in Europe. Federal, state, and local government agencies across the U.S. should pay close attention.

A sample of some of the most recent news about 'open source' and eHealth in Europe over the past month include the following stories:

• UK health services switch central database to open source  - The United Kingdom's (UK) National Health Service (NHS) is building its next generation central database (e.g. Spine2) on open source components.
• Vienna Medical University IT strongly relies on open source  - The Medical University of Vienna, Austria, relies on free and open source software for its IT infrastructure, and is expanding the use of this kind of solutions into educational ICT areas .
• New Web Portal for Drug Discovery - The European GRANATUM project and web portal is a collaboration platform for biomedical researchers in the field of cancer drug research. It provides 'open access' to globally available biomedical knowledge and data resources This will accelerate scientific medical research and reduce costs.
• OpenOffice in Italian Emilia-Romagna to save 2 million - The administration of the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna will switch to the open source office suite OpenOffice. They hope to save about 2 million euro dollars on license fees for proprietary software.
• Portuguese government set on increasing use of open source  - The government of Portugal wants to increase its use of open source information & communication technology (ICT) solutions and open ICT standards to help reduce costs.
• Czech public administrations adopt open source filing system  -  Dozens of schools, municipalities and other public administrations in the Czech Republic have implemented Spisovka, an open source electronic filing system designed for government agencies.
• French Gendarmerie: "Open source desktop lowers TCO by 40%"  - Using an open source desktop lowers the total cost of ownership by 40% by saving on proprietary software license fees and reduced costs on IT management.
• Hungary is testing Munich's Wollmux form management  - The newly created Hungarian government's open source resource centre is piloting the use of Wollmux, an open source form management tool developed and used by the city of Munich in Germany.
• German development ministry recommends open source to SMEs  - Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation & Development is recommending the use of free and open source solutions to small and medium sized enterprises in development countries.
• European Parliament IT is 'following open source route'  - The European Parliament is increasingly turning to open source, according to a report by the parliament's IT department.
• 'Greek government must resolutely promote open source use'  - The Greek government should more assertively and push for the use of free and open source solutions in public administrations, urges Eel/lak, a Greek network of academic proponents of open source.
• Munich distributes Linux CDs - This week's Monday, the administration of the German city of Munich started to distribute free Linux-installation CDs to its citizens.
• Open source group: Basque Region to save 14 million per year  - By using free and open source software, public administrations in Spain's Basque Region can save up to 14 million euro per year, according to a report by the trade group Euskadi Association.
• Belgian rail relies on open source for monitoring IT system  - The Belgian railways, a government-owned corporation, is relying on a plethora of free and open source to keep tabs on its large-scale IT system. 

To read the latest news on 'Open Source' and eHealth activities in Europe, check out these two key European Union (EU) news sites - Joinup and eHealthNews.EU    Joinup is a collaborative platform created by the European Commission offering services aimed at helping e-Government professionals share their experience with interoperability  and open source solutions.   eHealthNews.EU is the leader in coverage of the top European eHealth industry, research and conference news.