OStatic

Recently, we've covered several examples of open source software tools aimed at humanitarian and global healthcare efforts. Even in niche categories, such as earthquake research, open source software is surprisingly widely used.

For a sense of how very many open source software tools there are for medical professionals--ranging from medical records keeping apps to medical image viewing software--check out this collection of 100 of them. Open source software is also having an impact on clinical trials, one of the most important ways that emerging drugs and treatments make it to patients who need them. Today, a free, open source version 3.0 of OpenClinica, the most popular open source Electronic Data Capture (EDC) application for use in clinical trials came out.

If you're involved in healthcare IT and also have a fondness for open source, there's a newly formed group at LinkedIn that you may want to know about. The OpenVista Health Information Technology (HIT) group is looking for healthcare professionals who use the popular electronic medical record system and want to swap implementation and deployment ideas.