open source medical software

[Benjamin Rossen]

Is it not possible that there can be restrictions on the use of software for 
reasons that are unrelated to the license, such as the law which specifies 
who may practice medicine. 
(1) The Open Source License can make the software available to anyone 
irrespective of their professional background, however, 
(2) other laws may prohibit anyone other than physicians from using it for 
medical purposes. 
One can think of legitimate applications of the software in other contexts, 
such as a researcher studying medicial decision making theory, or a 
pharmaceutical company looking at aspects of use in practice and so on. Why 
not look for a phrasing that makes this disctinction. 

Benjamin Rossen 


On Thursday 27 January 2005 22:40, Richard Schilling wrote:
> I've been developing health care applications to manage medical 
> information since 1996.  That I know of the FDA exemption will still 
> apply to your product regardless of how you license it.
> 
> Your warranty may or may not limit your liabilities depending on the 
> promises you made directly to the people using your software and how the 
> warranty is worded.  You do have to be careful.
> 
> The folks at opensource.org may take exception to any license that 
> limits the use of a piece of software to only physicians.  However if 
> you license your product under one of the approved opensource.org 
> licenses and then only distribute the application through certain 
> channels (e.g. through local physician groups/consortia), it won't 
> affect the license itself - that's just a control on how you distribute 
> the product.  With an open source license though once another physician 
> receives your product they would have the ability to distribute it to 
> whomever.  You have to decide if that type of licensing is appropriate 
> for your goals.
> 
> Having said that, open source licenses like the BSD license generally 
> works well for health care applications.
> 
> Richard Schilling
> 
>