[Comments welcome!]
This version 2009-05-07
Domain: eHealth standards, see eHealth standardization map http://www.talkstandards.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/map-ehealth-sso.jpg [accurate?]
The openEHR Foundation is an international non-profit foundation founded in 2000, with the ambition to make interoperable and lifelong electronic health records (EHR) a reality and improve medical care in the information society through the open standard specification openEHR. The foundation is dedicated to the development of specifications, open source software and tools for the creation of adaptable health computing systems and patient-centric electronic health records. The focus in openEHR is not on how different systems exchange data with each other, but on architecture, reference models and especially archetype models for standardization of data, irrespective of the application of such data. The term openEHR is used both for the foundation and its published work. The first version, openEHR 1.0, was released in February 2006, and the latest version, openEHR 1.0.2 was published on New Year’s Eve in 2008. [extent to which openEHR and other SSOs overlap? Specific niche for openEHR?]
OpenEHR was founded by University College London and Ocean Informatics Pty ltd from Australia and the board of the foundation is composed of four members from these two organizations. Membership in the foundation is open to anyone, and by now openEHR has more than 700 members from more than 70 countries. Membership is free of charge although the foundation is actively searching for sponsors.
Standardization is considered necessary by openEHR, however the openEHR view is that traditional standards setting processes with committees do not have a future. [facts to support this argument? evidence or facts would be useful] Instead, a development process aligned to the open source model is needed, with continual and open review where anyone can request changes. Therefore, openEHR is published in official versions which the users continually review, but with defined rules for how changes in the specifications are to be made. OpenEHR can be considered to consist of three types of content: specification documents, archetypes and software. [motives for this cooperation in standard and cooperation in application?] The latter two builds on the specifications. Thus a new version of openEHR implies the revision of the set of specifications. All the specifications are developed and managed by a project group within the foundation. However, each specification typically is the work of a specific working group. Anyone in the foundation may suggest changes to a specification, and when such a proposal is made it is discussed and developed until a consensus has been reached among the members of the foundation. Any such changes are then reviewed and documented by the Architecture Review Board consisting of 7 members before the revision of the specification is implemented by the project group.
All IPR to the contributions to openEHR is owned by [transferred to?] the foundation and all material is made publicly available for free under licenses where the only terms are that the user may not use the material out of context or modify it in such a way that it may damage the openEHR foundation. The stance of the foundation on IPR is that all components and specifications have to be in open source format; otherwise complete interoperability among all the complex systems in the area will never be achieved. [facts to support this position?] [other IPR policies considered for openEHR?]
OpenEHR continually cooperate with other organizations such as CEN and ISO. The openEHR specifications build upon various definitions and specifications in standards from CEN and ISO – while CEN in turn have adopted standards based on openEHR. A large international project of harmonization is also underway within ISO to develop specifications for how data following the openEHR standard should be exchanged in messages following the HL 7 version 3 standard.
OpenEHR is also cooperating with other organizations, for example the development of terminology by the IHTSDO (International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation). [Which organizations are most important to cooperate with for the success of the openEHR standards]
As rather new, the openEHR open standard has not yet been widely implemented. [facts about use would be extremely useful] Various evaluations of openEHR are however ongoing in one or many regions within about ten countries.
Key success factors
Free membership of openEHR creates incentives for wide participation, especially from motivated individuals.
The set leadership of the foundations, although somewhat undemocratic, provides a coherent leadership vision.
The open development of standards provides swift reactions to technological progress and ensures that standards will meet the market demands.
Focus on interoperability. This enhances the ability of openEHR to respond and adapt to technological developments.
[additional factors?]
