Misys takes open-source community plunge

Misys today announced that it will make its Connect healthcare solution available to the open-source development community. Working with open-source developers is considered a first step toward establishing open standards in healthcare. The move comes after months of building an open source division, Misys Open Source Solutions. On July 24, Mike Lawrie, CEO of Misys, issued a Preliminary Results 2006/2007 report which noted the company’s plans to “continuously innovate to capture market opportunity.” That plan included the hiring of former IBM executive Bob Barthelmes as VP and general manger to develop their open-source initiative.

“This is a bold step. Misys is taking a leadership position in order to enable improved patient care, deliver results for our customers and make our vision of connecting all venues of care in a local community a reality,” Lawrie said in a release. “Making Misys Connect available to the open source community is an innovative way to connect healthcare communities and advance the improvement of patient outcomes, which is critical to addressing some of the systemic issues in the U.S. healthcare market today.”

Misys Open Source Solutions has joined the Eclipse Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to open source development. Misys will work with the foundation to advance the development of its Open Healthcare Framework project, formed for the purpose of expediting healthcare information technology.