Cognitive Medical Systems launches Socratic Grid open source initiative; joins Open Health Tools (OHT)

Supports company’s vision of providing lower cost IT tools to broader array of healthcare organizations worldwide

SAN DIEGO – October 23, 2012 – Cognitive Medical Systems, a specialist in standards-based clinical decision support software solutions for healthcare, today announced the launch of its Socratic Grid open source initiative. The company also joined the Open Health Tools consortium to demonstrate its deep commitment to this strategy.

“We're a firm believer that quality open source technology can help overcome the financial and technological barriers required for advanced Clinical Decision Support,” said Emory Fry, MD, Chief Medical Informatics Officer for Cognitive Medical Systems. “The sooner prerequisite infrastructure is in place, the sooner healthcare IT can build on that foundation and deliver value-added solutions facilitating evidence-based care, cost efficiency, and improved outcomes.”

Socratic Grid supports Cognitive Medical System’s vision of providing lower cost IT tools to broader array of healthcare organizations worldwide. The company’s belief is that opening up its core clinical decision support platform to outside developers will build a robust community and foster continued innovation in this promising arena.

“We’re excited to have Cognitive Medical Systems be part of our growing network of dedicated organizations,” said Robert M. Kolodner, M.D., Interim Executive Director of Open Health Tools. “Their approach is in line with our mission to accelerate the use of health IT by combining the lessons that have been learned from past efforts with expertise from other relevant disciplines; including medicine, economics, computer science and sociology. We are very much looking forward to their insights and expertise in our continued efforts in this arena.”

“We believe that we can help bend the healthcare cost curve in the U.S. and around the world. Commercial healthcare IT tools are far too expensive,” said Douglas W. Burke, President of Cognitive Medical Systems. “A healthcare organization, no matter what size, shouldn’t have to divert the majority of its limited financial resources into basic infrastructure. As an emerging leader in clinical decision support systems, it’s our honor and privilege to contribute a standards-based, open source platform that promises to enable a new generation of smarter, more intelligent tools. An open sourced infrastructure such as Socratic Grid, in combination with other quality community developed products, can help free up capital for new capabilities such as Clinical Decision Support, workflow optimization, predictive analytics, and automated clinical guidelines.”  More information on Cognitive Medical Systems’ Socratic Grid initiative is available at www.socratigrid.org.

About Cognitive Medical Systems, Inc.

Headquartered in San Diego, Cognitive Medical Systems is a HUBZone certified, woman-owned, service-disabled veteran, small business that specializes in standards-based, advanced concept engineering solutions for clinical workflow, decision support and data modeling projects. The company’s domain and field expertise in designing, implementing and integrating medical Service Oriented Architectures enables it to develop optimized solutions to complex problems for a wide range of organizations. For more information, contact www.cognitivemedicine.com.

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