Well into the computer age, healthcare lags badly behind other industries in the adoption of comprehensive information technology that facilitates greater efficiencies and improves vital functions. Despite more than sufficient evidence that clinical systems help improve care, save lives, reduce costs and increase revenue, right now only 15 percent of health organizations use advanced clinical systems and electronic health records (EHRs). Be it a hospital, an ambulatory clinic or a physician office practice, fully 85 percent of providers have not automated their care processes. The obvious question is why not.

This white paper, "Transforming Healthcare Through Open Source," explains that the answer lies not in technology itself but in the proprietary software business model and how it fails to serve the mainstream healthcare marketplace. The acceptance of the Open Source business model across other industries and the proliferation of Open Source companies—e.g., Linux, Red Hat, MySQL, JBoss—offers healthcare a roadmap to use in transforming health IT and improving the level of care provided.