The winner of the Code4Health open source software competition has been announced as the OpenEyes™ Electronic Medical Record application, led by Moorfields Eye Hospital.
The Code4Health competition aims to identify quality software projects with the NHS’s Code4Health Custodian model. It was introduced to highlight governance and security vulnerability issues that Code4Health collaborators need to consider as they develop and contribute software to the community. Applications were judged based on several attributes including software project structuring, copyright and Intellectual property considerations, security vulnerabilities, and license compliance in open source software (OSS).
The announcement was made by the NHS, Source Code Control and Protecode, an innovative provider of open source license management systems. Protecode’s analysis of the submitted OpenEyes™ project revealed a well-structured, copyrighted open source project that uses other OSS subprojects with no license compatibility issues, and free from security vulnerability concerns.
“This is all part of our drive to debunk some of the security and other myths surrounding open source software and its use, particularly in health and care settings,” says Peter Coates, programme head of NHS Code4Health. “What a great way to give recognition to those individuals and organisations working so hard to drive development and deliver well-engineered open source software solutions for our health and care economies.
“Congratulations to all of the entrants, and particularly to the OpenEyes™ Development Team. Our ambition is to repeat and build on this particular Code4Health challenge to further raise awareness of the professionalism surrounding the development of open source software for health and care."
Mahshad Koohgoli, CEO of Protecode, adds: “We were delighted to see the breadth and quality of software projects submitted within the Code4Health custodian model. We consistently noticed the use of good coding practices with attention paid to minimising risks by managing both security vulnerabilities and licensing obligations.”
All Code4Health competition applicants privately received a report that identified open source and other third party components, any security vulnerabilities, in addition to highlighting ownership, and licensing attributes within the code portfolio of their submission.
