Letter from the OpenEMR Community

[bradymiller]

Letter from the OpenEMR Community,

This letter is in regards to the following press release:

New Software Freedom Conservancy community to champion innovation in Health IT

OpenEMR, open-emr.org, has resulted from a vibrant community of volunteers and contributors working together for over a decade. We, the OpenEMR community, remain dedicated to maintaining OpenEMR’s excellence while guarding this free, open source, software solution for electronic medical records. We do not endorse this use of the OpenEMR name to promote this project and we do not believe that uncoordinated development efforts are in the best interests of users.

Please immediately remove from this announcement and any promotional materials any suggestion that the current OpenEMR leadership or community is supportive of this project. Those mentioned in the announcement are no longer active in our community and are not in any way entitled to speak for it.

Signed, Arnab Naha, Brady Miller, Cathy Stillwell Chelălău Ionuț Mihai, John Tenny, Matthew Vita Ray Magauran, Roberto Vasquez, Robert Down Rod Roark, Scott Wakefield, Sena Palanisami Shameem Hameed, Sherwin Gaddis, Srinivasa Rao Challa Stephen Waite, Tomas Vilhelm

Current members and leaders of the OpenEMR community

[downey (Michael Downey)]

Thank you for your concern. While we are disappointed the OpenEMR community is unwilling to collaborate with us and others in the health IT space in the spirit of innovation and open source, we are meanwhile heartened by the positive response by the OpenMRS community toward working together. That said, we shall continue to extend our offer to collaborate should you wish to reconsider your position.

For the record, here is last week’s response from our legal team to your letter:

Hi, Brady.

We appreciate you reaching out to Conservancy; we take any such feedback extremely seriously. We’ve re-reviewed the announcement in conjunction with leaders of the LibreHealth community. After looking at it closely, we’re confident that the announcement works as-is. It is factually accurate, and in no way states that OpenEMR or OEMR endorses or is officially involved with LibreHealth; nor does it suggest that the LibreHealth community members mentioned are speaking on behalf of OEMR or OpenEMR.

That said, at LibreHealth’s request, we’ve edited the announcement title and lede to further clarify LibreHealth’s origin. In parallel, I’ve also been told that LibreHealth already planned to publish content on their website next week that will elaborate on the project’s history, scope, and ambitions; I’m sure this content will further distinguish LibreHealth from OpenEMR.

This should resolve the matter. Thanks again for contacting us.

Tony Sebro General Counsel Software Freedom Conservancy