Fred Trotter, advocate of open source for health care , has tried to help out Medsphere which is having a nasty dispute with its founders Scott and Steven Shreeves. This is long and complex, but if you’re interested read this one first then this less happy one — Medsphere betrays community
Fred is particularly concerned because Medsphere is seen as the leading open source health care company. Fred believes (probably rightly) that if Medsphere is seen either not to be able to hold a rational open source model together or to be betraying the open source model, then open source in health care is probably dead.
UPDATE: Dmitriy writes in to say "I know, for a fact, that a "well known HIT infrastructure firm"
decided to not pursue MedSphere for a partnership because of this mess.
As a company MedSphere is done – who in their right mind will
contribute to their project? But I have no doubts that other flavors of
VistA, under better stewardship have bright future."
Categories: Uncategorized
Ken Kizer, for the lack of a better term, is a bonehead. Go ahead and quote me on this.
Nobody cares if there is a legal basis for the lawsuit. What matters is that he caused a breach of trust that will make everyone shun them. I know, for a fact, that a “well known HIT infrastructure firm” decided to not pursue MedSphere for a partnership because of this mess.
As a company MedSphere is done – who in their right mind will contribute to their project? But I have no doubts that other flavors of VistA, under better stewardship have bright future.
The lesson is crystal clear. If you have a business based on open community, do not hire a CEO so out of touch with what makes it tick. Get everyone brush up on the basic rules and remember whose interests come first. In this sense, being Under Secretary of VA and CEO of Quality Forum is a COUNTER-experience. But maybe I am too hard on Ken. Maybe he was sold a bill of goods by eager / desperate VCs and had no idea what he was getting himself in…
A key reason for developing the HealthTrain Manifesto was to help define and communicate the guidelines to help the industry stay out of trouble like this.