Frectally speaking

Coming across a couple some new angles on the open source story in recent days.. thought it was worth a share.

Beyond the important case that can be made for open source software to transform healthcare with IT, there is a growing view that there is a case to be made that open source knowledge is also needed in healthcare.

It has been long established that as part of a medical career, one should “publish or perish” to rise the ranks.

Yet the truth is that with the growing number and volume of medical journals that has risen, it has become impossible to keep up with that deluge at the frontline.. hence the emerging gap between “bench and bedside” , i.e. delivering evidenced based medicine at the point of care.

Another concerning aspect of the medical publishing industry is the closed nature of many publications, ie despite the fact that much of the research is publicly funded, many of the journals are subscription only, so cannot be accessed at the point of care, esp in developing countries.

The issue is highlighted here in an important case for open access in medical knowledge sources.

From another angle, here is another nice article , this time making the case that open source is not limited to software.

It makes the case that 3 key advantages (which are making it a powerful force in other areas such as open source hardware.)

• Unconstrained innovation – ideas and ambitions can be shared by folk who are oceans apart
• Transparent credibility -allowing immediate detailed scrutiny immediately boosts credibility
• Decentralized control – amendments and improvement can come from the bottom up