The Open Source development methods and Open Source software (FLOSS) offer the possibility of success and continuous evolution in healthcare IT. As the National Program for IT in the NHS (NPfIT) unravels past its name change (CfH...NHS CfH), specification creep, contractor replacement and freedom of information act skirmishing the possibility of moving on in a better way than previous efforts opens up.

The available, tested, working complete FLOSS stack for healthcare is based on the only language and database development and management system designed for large distributed medical records applications - MUMPS.

Libre software offers a reduction in risks of the sort exposed with iSoft's role in the NPfIT, and a healthy living to the forms and individuals required to implement and support it and the users. It has other philosophical and theoretical advantages which may in the long run be more important, but is presently a necessary but not of itself a sufficient condition for success in healthcare IT.