An Eclipse-based development approach to health information technology

The rapid proliferation of applications--electronic health record and clinical decision support systems among them--cannot keep up with the growing needs of healthcare delivery organisations. The absence of uniform standards and interoperability has hindered the successful deployment and acceptance of these applications. Eclipse and other open source applications have the potential to fill some of these gaps. The benefits include acceptance of open standards, enabling interoperability and scalability, prevention of vendor lock-in and lower costs. In this paper, we describe an Eclipse-based open source electronic health record application, a prototype. We contrast the Eclipse approach to other development approaches. Implementation is feasible and provides customization, although there are challenges to overcome. We envision organisations adopting open source development tools as alternatives to vendor-driven, proprietary systems.

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