Open data is for every doctor

“Prestige should not outweigh ability to provide quality care. This sounds like a nebulous statement in the wake of sweeping health-care legislation, and likely one to cause some providers to ruffle their feathers in discomfort. Research institutes, commercial pharma, and medical universities are not sharing enough data, period. In an age where healthcare is pushing 20% of GDP, and the federal budget allocates $769 billion dollars per year to healthcare projects, it is important to analyze the cost of the flow of information and make sure tax dollars are being put to best use. While the federal government has made admirable steps in encouraging standards of medical record keeping and sharing of clinical information via 3M Health Information Systems, the vast majority of research findings funded publicly are still pay walled by private publishers ... Researchers are all too tempted by the validation of publishing in a big name journal. It is not apparent enough that the product of public funding is being hoarded by corporations, neither is it obvious enough to professional researchers that they are withholding knowledge from healthcare providers and the patients in need. Traditional publishing is a true violation of the Hippocratic Oath by barring them from ‘shar[ing] such knowledge as is [theirs] with those who are to follow.’ How can medical professionals make the transition easier?”