OpenEHR / IHTSDO Update from the Board

At the end of August, the Foundation Board posted an announcement about progress of discussions with IHTSDO concerning governance of archetypes and SNOMED terminology, expecting to be in a position to report back by mid-October. We have been working along the lines set out in previous announcements, here, and the wiki consultation process with openEHR users, earlier this year. Although a detailed set of options has been drafted by IHTSDO and openEHR representatives and presented to the IHTSDO General Assembly, there has as yet been no feedback and thus we have not been able to provide any more information. We are assured, however, that there will be a formal response soon, and at that stage we will be able to discuss the outcome more widely.

As is clear from the several threads of discussion on the openEHR lists, there is understandable frustration about slow progress in defining next steps for openEHR, and we share that frustration. The Foundation currently has no formal status in the wider governmental and intergovernmental discussions but the work done and communicated, by members on the lists, UCL and Ocean over many years, and taken up and developed within the wider EHR community and in ISO-13606, is seen as an important contribution, on which many are building or wish to do so. It is certainly very widely studied by very many visitors who download and use materials from the openEHR web site and observe the discussion lists.