LinuxMedNews interviews new Medsphere CEO Michael Doyle

Those of us pursuing open source in healthcare IT always like to keep our eyes on what’s going at Medsphere and WorldVistA. It was great to see this interview with the new CEO of Medsphere.

These were my favorite questions:

LMN: It has been said that: “Medsphere could have been the “RedHat of Medical IT” that our community desperately needs. Instead they are the “Enron of Medical IT”.” because of the lawsuit against its founders Scott and Steve Shreeve. What are your thoughts on that?

MD: I can’t really comment on the lawsuit because it is an ongoing lawsuit. I’m not part of it and I will not be part of it. I hope that it gets settled soon. That’s the intent, or I hope that is the intent of all involved. I don’t know what you mean by Enron. I absolutely believe that this company has the ability to be the Redhat of Health IT.

LMN: Medsphere can play the Free/Open Source software card, reaping the goodwill of Free/Open Source while locking in customers by partially using proprietary products. What is your stance on this? Under your control will Medsphere be a ‘pure’ Free/Open Source company or a hybrid Free/Open Source and proprietary software company?

MD: It’s too early. I’ve been on the job for a week so it is too early to definitively answer that question. Most companies run a hybrid model. That’s something we are looking at. I have to spend some time researching this.

So, basically, he dodged the most important questions that have been keeping people from really embracing Medsphere. Lets hope Michael gets Medsphere back on track soon. There’s so much promise there.