Extension of nominations 31 Jan 2015 - and join up now.

Announcements (archive)
1

Happy Xmas everybody,

Thank you to the new members and Industry Partners that have joined up so far. We have three nominations for the Management Board at this stage. Two of the companies have asked for an extension for the joining date to allow transition to the new Calendar year.

The Board considered their request at the last Board meeting and agreed. Consequently the closure date for nominations has been extended to the 31 Jan 2015.

Please join up by going to http://members.openehr.org We need a broad and representative group to vote for the Management Board. Your involvement is crucial. The funds also help us with the provision of some of the fundamentals (web site, CKM etc).

Have a great break over Xmas but make sure you contribute to the MedInfo workshops by the middle of January. Keep an eye on the lists for details.

Looking forward to working with you all in 2015!

Cheers, Sam

Dr Sam Heard
Chairman, openEHR Foundation

2

Hi and seasons greetings!

I find the openEHR board nomination process a bit confusing and pretty different to what I am used to in other community settings.

When joining as an openEHR individual member you first have to wait until your application has been approved, this might be logical in some ways, but it means you will need to remember to get back to the member site some days later and then do your nominations (a nomination dropout risk).

Also you can not even view nominations without logging in. After logging in I did not find any list of members possible to nominate, but after navigating around a while I found these four nominations:

  • Bosca Tomas, Diego
  • McNicoll, Ian
  • Bakke, Silje Ljosland
  • Kobayashi, Shinji

I guess these nice persons were nominated by individual members, I did not find any information regarding if industry members have nominated any candidates.

I did not find any information regarding if any of the current board members are considered already nominated or not (I guess not, since Ian is on the current board and has been nominated separately).

The strangest thing, unless I misunderstood the submission form:
The form is rigged primarily to nominate yourself, and it is optional to “Include name in list of event registrants” - does that mean that there may be people secretly nominated? Very strange at least from a Swedish community/NGO/volunteer-org perspective.

I would like to nominate Thomas Beale for example, can I do that? By replacing my own name that is pre-filled in the form I guess it is possible to nominate someone else but it is far from obvious from form-texts regarding “your nomination” etc.

In the community settings I am used to, the nominations are open so that any member can nominate any member, then the nominated persons are asked if they would accept a nomination or not, then there is a vote among the remaining nominated persons.

I would suggest some changes

  • Listing all current nominations (including from both industry and individual members) without login requirement
  • Allowing at least logged in members to see who else is a member (so that we know who can be nominated and can encourage people to become members if they are not listed)
  • Making it possible to nominate other people than yourself
  • Clarifying if anybody not on the visible nomination list is considered to be nominated
  • Send out nomination reminders regularly (perhaps including a list of the then nominated persons)
3

As SDOs go, even IHTSDO and W3C are more open than this.

4

Hi Erik,

Happy New Year.

I agree the list of current nominees and members should be made more
obvious- @Sam - is this possible?

I have no idea what is meant by 'include name in list of event
registrants'. There is certainly no other 'secret' list of nominees
and current Board members are not automatically nominated.

You are correct that self-nomination is expected. I am not sure that
it makes sense to nominate someone else since it would really require
that person's agreement in any case. They would need to be registered
members and would need to nominate themselves, provide a bio etc.

The nomination does need support from an existing Board member but
this is purely to prevent vexatious or spurious nominations. I would
certainly not expect a nomination to be rejected other than in highly
extreme circumstances, and I would personally be happy to support
anyone from the 'known' openEHR community, should they wish it.

I am not aware of any Industry group nominations so far but understand
that these are imminent.

I agree too that we should issue regular updates over the next weeks,
along with lists of current nominations - we need more!

Regards,

Ian
Dr Ian McNicoll
office +44 (0)1536 414 994
fax +44 (0)1536 516317
mobile +44 (0)775 209 7859
skype ianmcnicoll
ian.mcnicoll@oceaninformatics.com

Clinical Modelling Consultant, Ocean Informatics, UK
Director openEHR Foundation www.openehr.org/knowledge
Honorary Senior Research Associate, CHIME, UCL
SCIMP Working Group, NHS Scotland
BCS Primary Health Care www.phcsg.org

5

Hi All and Happy New Year

Apologies for being away and not getting to this sooner. I am a full time clinician at present! Due to limited resources within the Foundation we have utilised the WildApricot software to manage our initial membership, nomination and voting process. We have used the “event registration” to accept nominations which may have caused some confusion. Koray Atalag, Pablo Pazos and Ian Mc Nicoll have editing access to this site.

The process is to join at http://members.openehr.org, await approval (built into the software), then go to the Nominations and Voting page. You will then be asked to provide the name of a member (not a current Board Member) supporting your nomination and give a brief Bio and statement of intent.

We are seeking nominations for 2 individual member positions on the Management Board and for 2 Industry Partner nominees. At present we have 4 nominations for the Individual Membership representatives:

Shinju Kobayashi
Silje Ljosland Bakke
Ian McNicoll
Diego Bosca Thomas

This list is now public. The software adds the possibility to restrict view (uneditable).

There are no nominations for the Industry Partner representatives as yet.

It is not possible to nominate another person. Nominees must be members, must complete the registration and their supporting member must be an active member. Active members are visible to all members under Contacts > Directory.

I undertake to send out this list on a weekly basis during January.

Hope this helps. We are, through this process, getting funds to launch openEHR as an operational organisation. The software is not ideal but at least we have a registration space and it links to PayPal so we have a manageable situation. I certainly hope we will do better in the future. I have attempted to answer as many of Erik’s points as possible. If you want someone to stand for election to the Board, please approach them and ask them to nominate.

Thank you for your patience.

Cheers, Sam Heard

6

Hi Tim
We need to see this as start up time as an organisation. Clearly this step needs to engage people and bring openEHR to an operational organisation. I look forward to your engagement!
Cheers, Sam

7

Hi Sam,

Can you please clarify what is happening to the existing Board. Is it dissolving completely or are some members remaining or…?

It seems that at least some are renominating.

Regards

Heather

8

Hi Sam,

Can you please clarify what is happening to the existing Board. Is it dissolving completely or are some members remaining or…?

It seems that at least some are renominating.

Regards

Heather

9

Hi Heather,

The existing Board will be dissolved. The current interim Board
members will remain as legal Company members/directors in line with UK
not-for-profit company law until after the new Board is elected after
which the legal Company membership will also change and a number of
the existing Company Members will stand down.

Ian

Dr Ian McNicoll
office +44 (0)1536 414 994
fax +44 (0)1536 516317
mobile +44 (0)775 209 7859
skype ianmcnicoll
ian.mcnicoll@oceaninformatics.com

Clinical Modelling Consultant, Ocean Informatics, UK
Director openEHR Foundation www.openehr.org/knowledge
Honorary Senior Research Associate, CHIME, UCL
SCIMP Working Group, NHS Scotland
BCS Primary Health Care www.phcsg.org

10

Hi Richard,

You are very welcome to join as an Individual member via
http://members.openehr.org. The cost per annum is only 10 euros.

We have been very clear that we want all of the openEHR resources to
continue to remain free to use to any individual or organisation who
were interested.

The key benefit of being a formal member is that you are entitled to
vote for 2 representatives on the Management Board but I would ask
people to consider joining anyway.

The membership fee gives a small amount of resource to enable
Foundation activities but much more importantly signals one's support
for a venture that has, and will continue to make, an enormous amount
of intellectual property freely available.

Look forward to meeting you in Brazil.

Ian

Dr Ian McNicoll
mobile +44 (0)775 209 7859
office +44 (0)1536 414994
skype: ianmcnicoll
email: ian@freshehr.com
twitter: @ianmcnicoll

Director, freshEHR Clinical Informatics
Director, openEHR Foundation
Director, HANDIHealth CIC
Hon. Senior Research Associate, CHIME, UCL

11

Uuuh, what?
Ian, can you please translate into a more simplified language, for the bunch out here that doesn't have English as native language?

Vebjørn

-----Opprinnelig melding-----

12

Thanks Ian,

I would be interested to know who is remaining and who is standing down. Is that information available?

I suspect that others in the community might like it too. It may influence decisions to nominate, or not.

Regards

Heather

13

Hi Heather, Vebjørn,

The nominations are for election to the new Management Board. None of
the existing Board members will be automatically appointed. The
Management Board is the group which is intended to direct Foundation
affairs in a practical sense and in that role, all of the current
Interim Board members are effectively 'standing down'.

My understanding is that all of the Interim Board members will remain
as 'Company Members' ( the legal 'owners' in UK Company law) until
after the election. The role of Company Members is largely nominal i.e
somewhat like Trustees / Guarantors in a charity to provide general
oversight.

The current proposals envisage a small Company Membership but we know
that there is some debate in the community about whether every
Individual and Industry member should automatically also be a
legal'Company Member'. UK not-for-profit law recognises both
approaches as being valid in different circumstances. The Interim
Board felt that this discussion still needs to be had but that it was
more important to get the new Management Board up and running first,
particularly as the election process should give that group a stronger
mandate and hopefully introduce fresh perspectives.

I would regard the Management Board as holding the key power and
responsibility and that this is a new entity. If current Interim Board
members want to participate they should nominate like anyone else.

Current Interim Board members will carry on in the short term as the
legal 'Company Members' until that broader constitutional question is
resolved. This will be an important discussion but is almost wholly
about how we feel that the aims and philosophy of the Foundation are
best protected, and not about running the Foundation per-se.

Ian

Dr Ian McNicoll
office +44 (0)1536 414 994
fax +44 (0)1536 516317
mobile +44 (0)775 209 7859
skype ianmcnicoll
ian.mcnicoll@oceaninformatics.com

Clinical Modelling Consultant, Ocean Informatics, UK
Director openEHR Foundation www.openehr.org/knowledge
Honorary Senior Research Associate, CHIME, UCL
SCIMP Working Group, NHS Scotland
BCS Primary Health Care www.phcsg.org

14

Thank you for gentle explanation, Ian.
It is not clear for me yet that where we are and why we got there, but
it seems quite obvious that we definitely need to go forward from
here, I guess.
To go forward, we have to organise a new board as an engine to drive
our project as soon as possible.
In short, we have to choose 2 individual representative from there
four nominees until Jan 31.

Shinji Kobayashi(me)
Silje Ljosland Bakke
Ian McNicoll
Diego Bosca Thomas

However, we do not know enough information to decide vote for each
candidates. Yes I know me and other candidates, but we have to address
our bio for decision makers like other elections.
Here is my bio.

Shinji KOBAYASHI, MD, PhD
A senior lecturer of the EHR research unit, Kyoto University in Japan.
I have trained as an clinical informatician and a clinical
hematology/oncologist in these 20 years.
* Achievement related with openEHR Projects:
* Original papers
KOBAYASHI S, TATSUKAWA A, Ruby implementation of openEHR
specifications. JACIII 16(1): 42-47 (2012)
* Conferences
The openEHR Developers' Workshop. MedInfo 2013
Shinji Kobayashi, Eizen Kimura, Ken Ishihara: Creating Electronic
Health Records within 15 Minutes with Ruby on Rails And ISO
13606/OpenEHR Standardized Clinical Models. MedInfo 2013
The openEHR Developers' Workshop. MedInfo 2010
* Activity related with openEHR.
A lead of openEHR.jp(from 2007)
The openEHR tutorial workshop in Manila(July 2013)
More than twice a year we have made seminars around openEHR from 2008.
A qualified member of openEHR localisation and web committee.
* What I would do if I elected.
I will launch NPO to facilitate openEHR works in Japan this early
2015. My motivation is to propagate and utilise openEHR specification
like ground roots.

Please ask me any question around me. Moreover, could you let us know
a profile of each nominee?

Shinji KOBAYASHI

15

Hi Sam,

Can you please clarify what is happening to the existing Board. Is it dissolving completely or are some members remaining or…?

It seems that at least some are renominating.

Regards

Heather

16

Hi Sam,

Can you please clarify what is happening to the existing Board. Is it dissolving completely or are some members remaining or…?

It seems that at least some are renominating.

Regards

Heather

17

Hi Sam,

Can you please clarify what is happening to the existing Board. Is it dissolving completely or are some members remaining or…?

It seems that at least some are renominating.

Regards

Heather

18

I also understood we were nominating other people, not ourselves and was promoting this in the ES community asking them to join and nominate :confused:

IMO self nomination is weird because you need to ask someone to support your nomination. Nominating someone else is easier, we just need to ask the person if he/she wants to be nominated.

About the chosen tool to hanlde this: ot os difficult to work with, from the user and admin perspective. IMO the same can be done just with google forms, that is free and widely used, and paypal directly.

19

Hi Pablo

There are a couple of drawbacks but generally I think it will save a massive distraction for our key people in the short term. Filling in the form yourself is common in my experience with a supporter. We want people who want to do it, not pushed into it.

Cheers, Sam

20

Hi Pablo,

I think we all agree that the current tool has some difficulties but
its real advantage is in managing the voting process in a trusted
manner. For all its deficiencies, this particular piece of software
seems to have a good reputation in terms of handling the voting
process accurately and fairly. The last thing we want to do at the
moment is to be seen to be hacking things together, with the risk of
people claiming that the process has been unfair or inaccurate.

I absolutely agree that once this process is over, the new Management
Board should review how we manage membership lists and the voting
process for the future. Perhaps this is something that the proposed
new Web committee could look at. It would certainly be good to have
things much better integrated on the main site.

For now, I would much prefer to work on better communications on the
members site and on the main site.

I think the self-nomination question is a bit of a red-herring.

As Sam has said, there is a minimum commitment that anyone nominated
(self or otherwise) has to commit to.

They have to want to be nominated, they have to sign up as an
Individual / Industry Partner member, and they have to provide a short
bio.

I would certainly not want to be nominated publicly by someone else
until my agreement had been sought privately or otherwise

Behind the scenes I would fully expect Individual Members to be
encouraging others to nominate themselves and offer support, or for
people to seek such support and then self-nominate.

Again, it is something that can be reviewed in light of our experience
but I don't think changing from self-nomination really makes much
difference to the practicalities.

Regards,

Ian

Dr Ian McNicoll
office +44 (0)1536 414 994
fax +44 (0)1536 516317
mobile +44 (0)775 209 7859
skype ianmcnicoll
ian.mcnicoll@oceaninformatics.com

Clinical Modelling Consultant, Ocean Informatics, UK
Director openEHR Foundation www.openehr.org/knowledge
Honorary Senior Research Associate, CHIME, UCL
SCIMP Working Group, NHS Scotland
BCS Primary Health Care www.phcsg.org