Shepherd University

Shepherd University

Shepherd University Research Corporation (SURC)

Shepherd University Research Corporation (SURC)

Shepherd University

Shepherdstown, WV 25443

U.S.A

Email: groenpj@cs.com

Phone: 304-876-5036

Virtual Center for Collaboration, Open Solutions, and Innovation (COSI) in Healthcare

The Virtual Center for Collaboration, Open Source, and Innovation (COSI) in Healthcare is an initiative sponsored by the non-profit Shepherd University Research Corporation (SURC) in collaboration with other academic and health information organizations to improve the quality of healthcare and reduce IT costs by collaborating on the development of open solutions, and sharing resulting software and knowledge with the larger healthcare community.

One of the primary goals of the Center for Collaboration, Open Solutions, and Innovation (COSI) in Healthcare is to Lower the ‘Total Cost Ownership’ (TCO) of health IT investments by providing ‘open source’ electronic health records (EHR), medical software applications, interfaces, information exchange middleware solutions, related educational materials, and other needed tools. This should help make health IT solutions more affordable and also contribute to the other goals of improving quality of care and patient safety in the U.S.

Key Objectives are for COSI to establish a nationally recognized web site and the support needed to:

• Facilitate an ‘open source’ health information technology (HIT) software exchange

• Facilitate knowledge exchange on HIT open solutions

• Facilitate collaboration on grant proposals to develop innovative new software solutions in healthcare

• Support collaborative online community discussions about ‘open source’ HIT solutions

• Provide key links to ‘open source’ HIT news sources, studies, books, organizations, educational resources, etc.

• Seek funding sources to help accomplish all of the above.