A Personal Message to the OpenEHR Community

I wrote here some time ago of my forthcoming retirement and our wish and intention, as a Board, to pass the mantle of openEHR to the best possible new leadership and ownership, from October 1st. That time is fast approaching and it is, for me, mainly a period for tidying up and refocusing my personal efforts for the retirement years that now beckon. Forty years of books and papers, collected in a personal journey through health care informatics, have been sifted, distributed to new owners, transferred to new offices, or shredded and disposed of. It jerks one’s mind to re-read about the mostly forgotten, day-to-day, ups and downs of the journey; in my case, relatively few take-offs and landings and, for personal reasons, a journey conducted these past two decades as close to home as possible. It confirms one’s view and resolve that what remains to be done, and that is very considerable, indeed, is best passed on, with good wishes, to a new generation, able to benefit from but unencumbered by the legacies, some real and valuable, some silly and unnecessary, of the journey one has followed and experienced.

An informal interim steering group consisting of Sam Heard, Dipak Kalra, Thomas Beale, Tony Shannon, Martin van der Meer and I met here in my new office at UCL, a couple of months ago, to discuss a future plan of action, under Sam’s leadership. It was a warm and united gathering and I felt immensely proud and appreciative of all of them, each working in their own way for the mission we set for openEHR and renewing their commitment to it, for the future. As we have written, here, we have been seeking new governance and partnership for more than two years. In reality, those who can and wish to commit time and effort, for no return, are rather fewer than those choosing or having to focus more on earning their livelihood, in advising, teaching, researching, developing, selling to and evaluating performance in the field. These in turn are many fewer than those doing the work of delivering services that help healthcare tick and improve...