The Open Source Electronic Health Records Agent Conference

In 2011, I joined the Board of OSEHRA,  a nonprofit organization dedicated to innovation in electronic health record software.   Founded in 2011, OSEHRA supports an open, collaborative community of users, developers, and researchers engaged in advancing electronic health record software and related health information technology. OSEHRA hosts software repositories for applications such as the VA’s and DoD’s EHR systems. For more information, visit the OSEHRA website .

On October 17 and 18, 2012, OSHERA will host its  First Annual Open Source EHR Summit & Workshop. The Summit brings togethers stakeholders who support the use of open source electronic health record (EHR) technology and will be held October 17 and 18, 2012, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Washington DC (National Harbor, MD).

The Summit will feature more than 30 panelists and speakers, including government officials, health care leaders, clinical care providers and policymakers. The event will bring together the OSEHRA community, now totaling more than 1,000 members, for the first time and provide a venue for Open Source Health IT training and educational workshops.

Conference topics will include:
Open source initiatives in Federal agencies; VA, DoD, HHS and others
Best practices in open source software development
Lessons learned from related industries
Open source software development in health care
Trends in the open source software industry
New open source initiatives

It is projected that within the next few years more than 200 hospitals and 1000 clinics within the federal sector will be managing and maintaining their EHRs using open source software. Open Source electronic health records are also being used in numerous domestic community health care facilities and more than 13 foreign countries. An increasing number of state agencies and private sector health care communities facing high costs of health IT have started calling for alternate approaches to traditional proprietary electronic health records. These open source activities create a significant market opportunity for both private and public sectors.

The Summit is now accepting abstracts for presentations addressing technical, business and policy issues associated with open source software and EHR. Abstracts are limited to 100 words or less and submission requirements are detailed at the conference registration site’s “Call for Papers” tab. The deadline for submission is August 24, 2012. To submit an abstract for consideration, please respond directly to summitabstracts2012@osehra.org.

I hope to see you there!