Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am huge fan of Linux and open source. This is perhaps why I get so frustrated with the US health care industry and its general lack of interoperability. I could use many standards as an example, however, for this discussion I’m using the ASTM Continuity of Care Record (CCR) as an example.

Since I run my own small business, I'm very interested in health care reform. You see, my tiny -- two-person -- company pays more than four figures a month for health insurance. Ow!

Over at my health care blog, I’m asking whether open source is the cure for what ails health care IT.

Open source software benefits professionals in all industries: government, Internet, business, education, and even health care. Expensive software and subscriptions for anti virus systems, supporting electronic medical records and even phone or e-mail communications can put on a strain on small clinics as well as larger hospitals.

Or at least it will be if Open Health Tools, a new project to create standards and interoperable systems for accessing electronic health records, is a success.

Today's Report of the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission, "A Healthier Future For All Australians: Final Report," makes the e-health system a central plank in the future of health management in Australia.

"If you care about FOSS generally, I need you to show up at the HIMSS meeting. If you care about FOSS in Health IT, it is especially important that you be there. I believe that FOSS is the only real hope for untangling the mess that is Health IT." - interview with Fred Trotter

For three health care centers, the challenge was clear: Find a way to improve internal communications by expanding e-mail accounts to all employees, including doctors, nurses, security staffers and dietary workers, without breaking their IT budgets.

Hans-Holger Schmuhl has launched a new online medical portal that lists a number of Free/Libre Open Source Software (FOSS) projects aimed at the health care and medical professions. So far, more than 120 projects, in a number of categories, have been listed