OSCON, the most important Open Source conference, adds a healthcare track in 2010

I got a note about OSCON from Fred Trotter this morning and read it with great enthusiasm:

I am happy to spread the news that OSCON, probably the most important Open Source conference in the country, will have a healthcare track in 2010.

Andy Oram has explained the decision to add a healthcare track to OSCON.

They have asked me to help promote the conference and I want to be sure that our community offers up the very best in talks and technical content. This is a really good way to access the developer mind-share in the broader Open Source community and we need to jump all over it.

If you’re doing anything remotely interesting with healthcare IT and open source, this is your chance to make a big splash.

Here’s the information from the call for proposals:

O’Reilly Media invites you to lead conference sessions in open source healthcare technology at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention 2010. OSCON will be held July 19-23, 2010 in Portland, Oregon.

IT in healthcare is at a turning point, and open source is driving change and collaboration across the industry. We want to hear about the key projects, APIs, open standards and technological challenges in healthcare as it takes steps towards a radically different future.

Submit a proposal — fill out the submission form.

Participants at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention want to hear about real-world scenarios using open source and what’s new. Include in your proposal as much detail about the planned presentation as possible. The more we know about what you plan to present, the better. Proposals which are vague or cover too much material are unlikely to be accepted. If you think your proposal covers too much of a topic, consider submitting two proposals which split the material into different sessions.

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Some of the topics we’re on the lookout for the 2010 Healthcare Technology track are:

• Health data exchange projects like NHIN/CONNECT, Kantara, and hData
• Open standards for health data, and supporting software
• Mobile devices for clinical data input
• Health IT for disaster relief and developing nations.
• Electronic health/medical records management.
• Public health projects – symptomic surveillance, medical trials, etc.
• Patient-centered health data projects, from PHR systems to mobile apps.
• Securing health systems.
• Understanding the “alphabet soup” of healthcare technology standards and organizations.