Misys and open source medicine

The importance goes beyond a single vendor's fate. That's because Misys Connect is essentially middleware, code for connecting applications together.

Misys is hoping this can lead to interfaces with other products and the free exchange of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs).

The company is hoping that services and SaaS revenue can make up for the licensing fees it is losing by releasing Misys Connect to the community.

The company is also hoping community contributions can make Connect an essential glue linking disparate systems together.

Scott Shreeve, who blogs about open source health care, gave the move a qualified endorsement. He wants to get his hands on the code before raving about it.

If it is, or can become, what Misys wants it to be, Connect could become a vital element in making health care reform happen.

Politicians across the spectrum are demanding EMRs and the easy movement of data between systems, but in a proprietary universe the promise is way ahead of the reality. And medical computing remains a proprietary universe.

If open source interfaces are built across these proprietary islands, on the other hand, the vendors can compete however they want without stalling the EMR movement.

Tim Elwell, the Misys executive who is behind its open source push, says what the company is doing is in the interest of all vendors.

"There are 300 EMR vendors now," he said, "but how many have real adoption?" Fact is only 10% of doctors use EMRs because they're afraid of technology dead-ends.

Open interfaces eliminate that objection, or at least allow the government to overrule that objection. "If I can glue these things together and create bridges there will be a groundswell of activity around it," he predicted.

And someday, when Ivisit a doctor for the first time, I might not have to spend a half-hour filling out a paper form, and their back-office staff might not have to spend a half-hour trying to read my handwriting.