This session would discuss in detail about the licensing and distribution challenges associated with the implementation of messaging and vocabulary standards. Vendors and consumers of these standards need to know about the terms of use and copyright issues as they affect the adoption of standards. Panelists from SDO, Workgroups, and distribution sources will describe the licensing, copyright, and terms of use associated with HL7 messaging, LOINC and SNOMED.

This session will have panelists from the Standard Development Organizations (SNOMED,LOINC) and CDC CSTE ELR Task Force to discuss in detail about the licensing and redistribution challenges associated with the Meaningful Use messaging and vocabulary standards.

The first panelist from the Regenstrief Institute will explain LOINC distribution and Terms of Use.  The LOINC vocabulary is made available by Regenstrief Institute at no cost worldwide under a license that protects its integrity but permits relatively open use. This presentation will provide an overview of the LOINC distribution, including what’s in it, how to get it, and what you can do with it. We will specifically cover aspects of redistribution, creating subsets, and the representation of content in LOINC that has a third party copyright.

The second panelist from the National Library of Medicine will give a presentation on SNOMED CT Licensing/Distribution.  As the U.S. Member of the IHTSDO, NLM is responsible for licensing and distributing SNOMED CT within the U.S.  There will be discussion of how NLM distributes SNOMED CT through the UMLS/UTS, and the licensing terms that apply for use of SNOMED CT.  Special emphasis will be placed on relevance of these licensing terms to the public health community.

The third panelist from CDC CSTE ELR Task Force (Standards workgroup) will present an overview of licensing considerations related to the HL7 standards named in the Meaningful Use final rule. The public health community is using HL7 implementation guides in a wide variety of contexts, including ELR, immunization, syndromic surveillance, public health case reporting, and healthcare associated infections reporting. The current policy associated with the use of HL7 intellectual property (including document, messaging and vocabulary standards) will be reviewed. Questions will be collected from the audience for discussion with the HL7 board of directors.