Open-Source Software: Towards Enabling Public Health Informatics in Developing Countries

Open-source applications belong to a genre of software with unique intellectual property implications and that promote free use, modification and redistribution of source code. It has made significant inroads in the global IT industry and in health care as well. Public health practice, research and learning are information-intensive fields and require IT to manage health information for evaluating outcomes and support decision-making. In the public health domain several niches make use of open-source software including early event detection, statistics and geographical information systems. There are important reasons for promoting the use of open-source software for public health in developing countries. Specifically we highlight the existing and emerging threats to the health of the public. New and emerging infections, bioterrorism, disasters and old scourges like TB and malaria continue to underline the importance of a robust public health infrastructure to aid decision-making and facilitate timely responses. These threats are nowhere more strategically found but in developing countries where (1) their impact is felt on all sectors of society; (2) enormous amounts of collaborative, cross-cutting work that characterizes public health response are difficult to carry out because of infrastructure, data protection and transparency issues; and, (3) the digital divide has its most adverse effect.

The technology used for public health information systems clearly faces some unique challenges. These are evident in the need for sustainable, affordable, secure and scientifically sound systems that can operate in settings spanning jurisdictional, geographic, socio-political and cultural boundaries. Launching an open-source revolution in public health is not enough. We need a strategic open-source roadmap that would enable stakeholders to collaborate and exchange data and information for decision-making, and create a future information ecosystem where standards-based, interoperable information systems with modular components that use both open-source and proprietary code enable seamless information exchange for developing countries.