Open Source: 'One of the last great challenges'

"I think open source is the right thing to do the same way I believe science is better than alchemy," software pioneer Linus Torvald, who developed the "kernel" that's the basis of the Linux operating system, has said. "Like science, open source allows people to build on a solid base of previous knowledge…. It's just a superior way of working together."

More and more folks in the health IT arena are coming to share in that sentiment.
Of course, proprietary tech companies – most healthcare IT companies – might view it differently. But from Medsphere, with its affordable and widely-used OpenVista EHR, to the ongoing iPath telemedicine platform project, more and more people are recognizing the growth potential afforded by software whose source code is open anyone who wants to explore, change and improve it.

And for a healthcare sector that's come under criticism for its slowness to adopt the technologies that have transformed so many other industries, open source could be a vital complement to the big-name players and catalyst to boost clinical care to the next level.
Bringing "economic power and flexibility of open source to the healthcare domain" is "one of the last great challenges," says Matt Mattox, the co-founder and vice president of product development of Axial, of Raleigh, N.C., a year-old company that is putting open source to work in its quest to "unlock the power of health information."...