Readers respond: Control is an issue for open source pieces of DoD/VA joint EHR

The massive undertaking to create a dual-agency EHR that serves both DoD and VA patients with a system woven from existing proprietary and open source components might demand something to which the federal government is largely unaccustomed.

"The government tends to have this view of, ‘We’re the ones in charge here,’” said John Scott, author of the report "Open Technology Development for Military Software," a member of the Military Open Source Software (Mil-OSS) community and senior systems engineer and open technologies lead at RadiantBlue Technologies.

In the feature Building a mammoth federal EHR: Tech is the easiest part, Scott added that “when you don’t have a lot of that technical expertise on the open source code, copyright, intellectual property [and] contracts, it’s very hard to have a great deal of control.”...