Avoiding Another Lost Decade For Open Source

-The DoH's apparent enthusiasm for openness has not been reflected in its consultation paper on information

The positive stance of the Cabinet Office towards Open Source software is widely communicated. However the Department of Health's current IT consultation paper 'An Information Revolution' does not mention open source software at all. This stark omission in a paper which depends on 'a presumption of openness' across the NHS supply chain begs for comment from the open source community.

According to the Department of Health, patients will be given the information to consent to treatment, given control over their data in new forms of online experience and given the decision to release this data for management and research purposes, which will in turn improve care. This new world is to be underpinned by "a presumption of openness" between systems, governed by open standards of information exchange.