SCALE 2008: Opening Up – The Inevitable Conversation within Health Care

1. The spoken exchange of thoughts, opinions, and feelings; talk
2. An informal discussion of a matter by representatives of governments, institutions, or organizations.

Someone reminded me that I never posted my slides from the recent SCALE 6.x Conference held in Los Angeles on February 8, 2008. I had been invited to speak regarding my take on the broader view of how open source is impacting the health care industry. During last year’s keynote on the Health Track, I had introduced the concept of Health 2.0, and so this year I wanted to show how the principles of open source are truly having an impact within health care far beyond the technology itself. I borrowed heavily from a recent report from CED report entitled, “Openness Within Healthcare“.

I deliberately chose the title, initially to highlight how it was inevitable that open source would infiltrate all aspets of health care IT, but later expanded it to highlight how the impact was actually much broader from a technical, service, and philosophical perspective. I waxed a little frothy with the fundamental tenet of open source – which at its core speaks the moral obligation to share information as a means to reach human potential – but I think it has particular relevance within health care. The key points that I tried to highlight are:

• Open Source and Health Care share same values
• Transparency, or Openness, is an engine of innovation
  • Collective Intelligence
  • The Network Effect
  • Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
• Greater FREEDOM allows the human mind and body to reach its greatest potential

I also gave a short interview to the Linux World reporters on site that same day. Overall, I hope it becomes a helpful segway to a more meaningful national conversation regarding next generation health care.