Frectally speaking

With the passing of the Kodak into bankruptcy in recent weeks, its a reminder that “this too, will pass“.

The Leeds Photographic Society, established 1852, is the oldest of its type in the world. At a recent meeting of the photographic club, where I’m a member, I came across a small interesting exhibition of books on the history of photography. They made for interesting reading, a reminder of the early years of photography where the science of optics slowly met the science of chemistry. While we may associate many fields with momentous discoveries, the history of photography illustrates that it was many small advances that paved the way for this field we now take for granted that is photography.

So it is with the field of healthcare improvement today. Healthcare, a long established profession is meeting the worlds of management science and the worlds of information science and software engineering, that highlight that the many changes we are seeing in this field reflect the immaturity of the field as a whole.

What is interesting to note in recent months is the slow but steady recognition that healthcare needs disruptive innovation change with a new eHealth platform(s). Let me point you to several related developments that should help affirm that point, some of which I’ve mentioned before, some of which I have not.

Clinical Information Modelling Initiative (CIMI)

Collaborative Health Consortium

openEHR

OpenSourceEHRA

OpenHealthTools

SMART platforms

Take a look at this interesting visual which highlights where we are in 2012 and where we want to be. It highlights the current proprietary nature of healthcare systems which disconnects people and process, with the slow move towards “walled gardens” on the road to a vibrant open ehealth ecosystem that healthcare requires.

You may be very early in your knowledge of the intersection between medicine, business and IT, but I hope might be able to see a pattern emerging here amongst these efforts.

In time to come folk will look back at this year of 2012 as an early, though I hope important, year in eHealth.