Opting for recognised standards in the eHealth environment is generally welcomed, and in some cases even laid down by the law. But often the necessary know-how is lacking and can’t be acquired so quickly because of the great complexity involved. This means that people regularly resort to proprietary solutions that aren’t interoperable. The project HUSKY is a convenience application programming interface that lowers the barrier to entering the world of eHealth standards, providing an incentive to create a harmonised, connected healthcare system.
Yes. The HUSKY project is a so-called FOSS or free and open source software that’s available on GitHub. However, as is customary for FOSS, the relevant licences for free software apply. In the case of the HUSKY project, they are the Eclipse Public License v1.0 for the source code and the Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Creative Commons License for the documentation.
The Eclipse Public License v1.0 for the source code excludes any liability (see section 6). The HUSKY project is an offer that can be used voluntarily. Anyone using it must exercise the due care and diligence in its use. Developers of products based on the HUSKY project may, if necessary, establish their own, possibly analogous, liability rules for their use.
No. But by their nature, free open source projects involve an element of give and take. It makes sense to work on functionalities and modules on a common basis so that they are open to all users. This also applies to extensions. Naturally, commercial products that have to use parts of the HUSKY project don’t have to be disclosed.
The Joint Working Group (IHE, HL7, eHealth Suisse) for the HUSKY project is being set up. Roeland Luykx of the company Raly GmbH has taken up the work of coordinating the Joint Working Group HUSKY. Interested companies and individuals are invited to contact husky@ihe-suisse.ch. to get in touch.
Won’t the HUSKY project force other offerings out of the market? After all, a number of Swiss software companies offer adapters for the same functionalities.
No. The HUSKY project may even be the basis of some of these adaptors, so it actually enables products to get established. To drive interoperability in healthcare forward, standards are crucial, and the HUSKY project is a good facilitator. The credo is to collaborate on standards and compete on products. Every healthcare establishment and IT provider is free to choose whether to implement the prescribed standards via their own expertise, use an existing open source component or procure a commercial product.
Currently there is no training programme for the HUSKY project. However, you can find documentation for developers on GitHub and contact us at husky@ihe-suisse.ch if you have questions about the project.