In a new report from Scientia Advisors, health IT is named as the one area of the global healthcare products market that is growing the fastest. Although established electronic medical record (EMR) vendors who offer pre-packaged systems that are guaranteed to comply with “meaningful use” criteria (set by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) are still expected to gain a large percentage of this market share, the research firm also states that free and open source software could grow significantly in popularity and drive down the cost for healthcare facilities.

This new report comes after the Health IT Advisory Committee – a group that advises the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) – approved the certification of open source medical software. Open source software utilizes code that is already written and is therefore readily available for anyone to use (non-proprietary). Subsequently, it also often happens to cost much less than other software systems that do contain proprietary code. Perhaps the best-known example of open source medical software can be found in the VA’s Vista EHR, which has been made accessible to software developers for some time.

For many medical practitioners, the issue of cost and questions about certification lie at the center of this discussion. If less expensive, open source software systems are indeed eligible for government aid, it is much more likely that the overall price of medical software systems will be brought down. In addition, the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) has agreed to certify EMR software using the exact guidelines that are set forth by HHS, and the Health IT Advisory Committee has claimed that perhaps the guidelines previously set forth by CCHIT for medical software certification have been too specific. Some experts are predicting this shift will also help to pave the way for increased open source utilization.

All of this information bodes well for open source software users, especially for the doctors and healthcare facilities that stand to save substantially as a result of its allowance. In order to continue to make strides and convince physicians everywhere to adopt EMRs, it is essential that such innovative, effective options continue to be recognized as viable avenues to creating digital recordkeeping systems for medical providers.