Open source #

I constantly talk about open source and regurgigate the same links to policy and best practice over and over again so it has finally dawned on me that I should just write it down once and then, you guessed it… open source it. So here it is.

(I may expand this into a whole section in time but let’s start with the basics)

Policy #

• Guidance on sharing code from GDS: https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/technology/making-source-code-open-and-reusable
• The NHS version of the above: https://service-manual.nhs.uk/service-standard/12-make-new-source-code-open
• Sharing code being talked about in NHSX’s data saves lives strategy document: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-saves-lives-reshaping-health-and-social-care-with-data-draft/data-saves-lives-reshaping-health-and-social-care-with-data-draft#helping-developers-and-innovators-to-improve-health-and-care

Guidance #

• Security and open code
• Why code in the open
• When code should be open or closed
• Health Foundation on opening their code
• NCSC Secure development and deployment guidance
• This RAP repo contains loads of excellent material on git and open
• NHSX on open code

Awesome repos that show how it’s done #

(although note some of these are imperfect e.g. they lack licences)

• The superb, world leading coronavirus dashboard from PHE https://github.com/publichealthengland/coronavirus-dashboard
• An analysis of risk factors for COVID deaths across 17 million linked NHS records https://github.com/opensafely/risk-factors-research
• Open prescribing, an API/ dashboard for GP level prescription data https://github.com/ebmdatalab/openprescribing
• A tool to calculate growth centiles for children, developed by RCPCH https://github.com/rcpch/digital-growth-charts-server
• The NHSX/ NHSR funded R wrapper to our locally developed tool to classify text based patient experience data (this is from my team 😊) https://github.com/nhs-r-community/pxtextmineR
• An experimental bed allocation tool from NHSX https://github.com/nhsx/skunkworks-bed-allocation
• Open source SQL that produces the MHSDS from NHSE https://github.com/nhsengland/MHSDS

(This is really just a completely rushed random snapshot. If you know about something cool in open source health and social care, get in touch or make a PR ☺️)