About OSHCA

The Organisation shall be known as Open Source Health Care Alliance, registered in Malaysia, herein after referred to as “OSHCA”.

Vision:

Free/Open Source Health Care Software will provide a viable and sustainable alternative in mainstream Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for positive impact in health outcomes as adjunct to building a global knowledge society.

Mission:

• Promote to policy makers the concept of Free/Open Source Software in Health Care so as to adopt or give equal opportunity to Free/Open Source Solutions.
• Provide leadership role in refining the Free/Open Source Software Concepts as applied to health care to ensure best practices and patient safety are not compromised.
• Make recommendations on the development and use of Health information Standards for data interchange and representation formalisms.
• Provide Guidelines for Quality Control on Free/Open Source Health Care Software development.
• Participate in and support Human Capacity Building, including contributing/participating in project proposals and project management to achieve developing country priorities.
• Enable collaboration of members including, sharing technical knowledge in Free/Open Source Health Care Projects and providing information Resources to Free/Open Source Health Care software developers.
• Promote and help the formation of development consortia for health care related projects, including assisting in finding funding for projects to reach critical mass for a visible and lasting impact on health related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
• Use collaboration with strategic organisations with compatible goals as a means of achieving the mission.

Principles:

Promote a globally sustainable approach to building ICT solutions for health care

Free/Open Source Software development encourages global collaboration. OSHCA will encourage approaches that seek active participation in Free/Open Source Software development in health care by users, developers, and policy makers from all parts of the world.

Stay lightweight and flexible

In the spirit of Free/Open Source where development is user and needs driven, facilitation needs to support highly desirable dynamism, adaptability, and flexibility. This approach seeks to facilitate natural processes that produce better quality, usability, longevity, maintainability and cost effectiveness.

Be open to diverse opinions and technologies

OSHCA is inclusive of all health care-­related Free/Open Source activities. In a Free/Open Source world, the success of an idea, standard, or product is measured by its practical use.

Ethical Deployment & Maintaining Standards

OSHCA’s focus is the legal and ethical deployment of reliable and robust Free/Open Source systems in all areas of health care. This means taking a leadership role to ensure standards are maintained, and working with legislative and standards bodies to encourage the inclusion of Free/Open Source principles in their policies.