OpenGALEN :
GALEN goes Open Source
A not-for-profit, open source technology for
clinical computing and terminology
The Universities of Manchester and Nijmegen
announced today that OpenGALEN has been set up as a not-for-profit Dutch
Foundation. OpenGALEN will make the main GALEN technologies available to
the world on an open source and not-for-profit basis.
Today's Clinical Workstations aren't very
clinical: too many systems make the clinician's job harder, not easier. Users
complain especially about the medical coding schemes that they are required to
use - that they are too rigid, too complex, don't fit their requirements, and
that as users they have little input into them.
The result of ten years of research, GALEN is a
radical new resource for medical coding and terminology. Designed as a
completely new kind of infrastructure for clinical application builders, it aims
to make terminologies easier to develop, easier to use, and easier to tailor to
individual needs. It aims at 'coherence without uniformity' - to make systems
flexible without sacrificing interoperability. Its goal is to help put the
'clinical' back into Clinical Workstations.
'The Clinical Terminology Problem is widely
recognised as a major obstacle between us and the next generation of computer
tools for the clinical environment. OpenGALEN is another piece in the
jigsaw of solutions - a resource for terminology developers, systems builders
and end users' said Mr Pieter Zanstra of Nijmegen University.
'OpenGALEN creates a new international
resource for clinical system builders. They will be able to produce software
that physicians, nurses, and other health professionals actually like using,
because it supports and speeds their work in managing patients and maintaining
their records.'
Professor Alan Rector, Chairman of OpenGALEN
said: 'GALEN is a radical new resource for medical terminology. As a new kind of
resource, it has many new potential applications that should be allowed to
develop in many different ways.'
'A powerful new technology isn't enough. Only by
involving users, systems builders, and other terminology developers throughout
its development and maturation can the potential of such technology be
realised.'
'There's no better way to get users involved in
developing a product than to let them become the developers. And they can only
participate if they have easy access.'
'The goal of GALEN has always been an open
terminology resource. OpenGALEN makes that goal a reality.'
Information:
OpenGALEN is a not-for-profit Dutch
Foundation. It provides open source licenses and specifications for the common
GALEN technology.
The Victoria University of Manchester is in the
United Kingdom.
The University of Nijmegen is in The Netherlands.
The GALEN technologies were developed with
research funding provided by the European Community Framework III and Framework
IV programmes.
Email
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