Recently, NextGen decided to move Mirth from their previous open source and commercial license to a now purely commercial license. Considering the breadth of adoption of Mirth Connect for data sharing in healthcare, this was a big move by NextGen which will now force all Mirth Connect users to make a decision. If Mirth Connect users want to stick with the open source licensing model that Mirth started with, there are a couple of orgnaizations that have chosen to fork Mirth Connect in order to continue the open source licensing option or they can continue with NextGen’s commercial license.
For those not familiar with open source licenses, forks are a common thing in open source projects when the community has a different view on where the software should go in the future. Plus, it’s one of the powers of the open source license. The Mirth Connect code set is available for anyone to take it and continue developing it as they see fit by forking the project into a new open source project. That’s exactly what Innovar Healthcare and other members of the community decided to do when they forked Mirth Connect and created BridgeLink.
To help the Mirth community learn more about the new open source alternative to Mirth Connect, BridgeLink, I sat down with Loyd Bittle, CEO and Founder at Innovar Healthcare, and Drew McNichol, Executive Director at Technology By Design. Bittle and his team are leading the BridgeLink effort and McNichol has chosen to transition from Mirth Connect to BridgeLink for a number of New York’s HIEs (Health Information Exchanges) starting with HEALTHeLINK.
In the interview, I start by asking Bittle and McNichol what made the open source Mirth platform so powerful and why so many healthcare organizations adopted it. Then, Bittle shares with us why Innovar decided to fork Mirth Connect and create the BridgeLink open source alternative. Plus, McNichol shares why he and his team decided to move from Mirth Connect to BridgeLink including the things that made them comfortable that BridgeLink has a bright future as an open source project that aligns with their organization’s goals going forward.
We also ask Bittle to share with us some of the security fixes and other enhancements and functionality that they’ve added to BridgeLink that hadn’t been addressed in the open source Mirth Connect software. He shares his desire to turn BridgeLink into more than a messaging engine and into a platform.
Finally, we wrap up talking with Bittle and McNichol about what the keys are going to be for BridgeLink to create a vibrant and open community. If you’re on Mirth Connect or considering using it and want to learn about the new open source alternative, BridgeLink, you’ll enjoy our interview with Loyd Bittle from Innovar Healthcare and Drew McNichol from Technology By Design.
Learn more about Technology By Design: https://www.technologybydesign.com/
Learn more about Innovar Healthcare: https://www.innovarhealthcare.com/
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