Data saves lives- and so does open code

I’m reading data saves lives. And look, it’s that thing that I say all the time, that I have pinned on my Twitter profile, the thing I’ve heard time and time again for a decade that everybody just stands around nodding at and nothing actually changes. I quote:

“Working in the open

Public services are built with public money, and so the code they are based on should be made available for digital pioneers across the health and care system, and those working with it, to reuse and build on.

Analysts should be encouraged to think from the outset of a project about how work can be shared, or consider ‘coding in the open’ for example, through use of open notebook science. This will include sharing of technical skills and domain knowledge through sites like Cross Validated and StackOverFlow, and sharing code and methodology through platforms like GitHub, will build high quality analytics throughout the system

Our commitments:

• we will begin to make all new source code that we produce or commission open and reusable and publish it under appropriate licences to encourage further innovation (such as MIT and OGLv3, alongside suitable open datasets or dummy data) (end of 2021)”

My team does this, proudly. Does yours?