Thursday, February 09, 2006

Future of IDXRad

Well before we talk about future of IDXRad, let's go over some history.
IDXrad was originally called DECrad and was transferred to IDX several years ago who changed the name to IDXrad. DECrad specifications were developed primarily (if my history is correct) by Ron Arenson when he was at Penn and by RISC.
RISC, Radiology Information Systems Consortium was started, in the late 80s and early 90s, to promote radiology information systems when few were available. DECrad (now IDXrad) was an outgrowth of RISC's efforts. An independent users group was formed from users of DECrad under RISC. This group has been active ever since as the DECrad Users' Group and now as IRISS, the IDXrad Radiology Information System Society.
In the meantime SCAR, Society for Computer Applications in Radiology was formed as an individual member organization within RISC. SCAR and RISC merged into one membership organization under the SCAR name in 1996. IRISS remains an independent users' group with SCAR, just as formerly with RISC.
From what I understand (and please correct me if I am wrong and misinformed), the initial deal with IDX specified that as long as IDX supported the IDXRad product they could sell it to users and when ever they stop supporting the product, the IDXRad code is to be returned to the RISC (now SCAR) who will then make it an open source project.
If the above is true, what happens now that the IDX has been bought by GE? What I hear is that IDXRad v 9.x (byproduct of DECrad) will no longer be supported by GE and the IDXRad v 10.x will be the new GE RIS. If that is the case will SCAR ask for the source code of IDXRad and release it? These all sound like rumors to me. If anyone knows the real deal please comment.

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