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"We're trying to encourage people to improve their practice"

The open source model is not just a way to share free code.

Good software encapsulates expertise and experience, allowing the user to perform some action better than they could before. An open source software project can, therefore, be a way to share and build knowledge.

The Free Diagnostic Pathology Software Project is proof of this principle. The project offers free access to improved workflows and reporting practices for analysing cancer cells, developed by the NHS, through an open licence.

That could lead to a measurable improvement in the cost and effectiveness of cancer diagnosis, all around the world.

The project did not start out with such an altruistic goal in mind, however. Indeed, it was not even an IT project at first.

It began with an initiative, instigated by the NHS Improvements body, to modernise pathology testing by applying the principles of Lean and Six Sigma, that emerged from high tech manufacturing.

"Our processes aren't that different from industries such as car manufacturing or aerospace," says Dr Fred Mayall, consultant histopathologist at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, where the project began. "We have a relatively complex, technology-based process that has a very low tolerance for error."

The idea was to look at the workflow within the pathology lab and identify areas for improvement.

"We didn't set out to change our software, some of which dated back to the 1980s," recalls Mayall. "But every time we tried to change the process, someone would say, 'You can't do that because the computer won't let you'."

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Open-source cancer diagnosis