open source medical software

[Donnal Walter]

Thanks for the many replies, both on-list and off, especially
pointers to resources to which my colleagues (medical and legal)
and I can turn. The feedback has been helpful.

A few weeks ago, in another thread (and for entirely different
reasons) someone suggested setting up a consortium of users who
agree to share their modifications rather than making the code
entirely open-cource. Until now I have been so committed to the
open source concept that this idea seemed like an unacceptable
compromise to me, but the notion of an association where the
barriers to entry are mostly related to sharing responsibility
might be more attractive at this point. This would still provide
the peer review that we are seeking.

On the other hand, I have not yet given up on the open-source
dream. I can see that the licensing issues are mostly orthogonal to
the FDA requirements (although perhaps not entirely so).

Thanks again for the pointers.

Donnal Walter, M.D.
Arkansas Children's Hospital