Re: [Gnumed-devel] Re: Certification: Canada henceforth requires patient management software to be certified

[Karsten Hilbert]

On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 10:00:39AM -0700, Jim Busser wrote:

> 1. The requirement for a demonstrable quality control system for a piece
> of software that will be handling patient data is a no-brainer. I know
> that I would want some reassurance that the software that was
> responsible for my [project] had reliable quality control methods
> that were
> certified by someone NOT involved in its development and distribution.

The first such thing happening to FLOSS systems usually is
project-independant redistributors. That's exactly the first
business case that comes to mind.

> 4. The formation of a non-profit corporation to 'own' and certify
> [the FLOSS EMR] will enable an organization to hang the
> certification on and
> enable fund raising and grant applications.

I don't think there's a need for such a
<insert-whatever-entity-here> to "own" the FLOSS
application. All they need to do is set up demonstrable
practices of taking certain snapshots of the code, certify
them and be done with it. They would "own" the right the
sell the assurance of certification of a particular version
of the FLOSS app. That's it and that's plenty for a
successful business case.

> That is the model for many
> of the successful FLOSS projects and there is no reason to think it
> wouldn't work here.

I agree.

Karsten
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