The Develop In The Open (DITO) project ran from April 2019 to March 2021, funded by Innovate UK (project 27536) under the Digital Health Technology Catalyst. At £790,000 it was, at the time of award, the largest R&D grant Innovate UK had made to an open-source project.
DITO had two objectives: to develop best-practice processes for digital health technology, and to evidence that process by producing a real clinical application with it - the open-source NEWS2 electronic observations application that became Open eREACT, and the product family that followed it.
The story in three parts:
Where it came from
- Genesis - the decade of open-source groundwork and the Apperta partnership that sparked the project.
What it set out to do
- Objectives - the two objectives and the four values: sustainable, joined-up, safe, open.
- Principles - public money public code, the Open Digital Approach, open platforms and collaborative design.
- Meeting needs - the business, clinical and technological needs the project addressed.
- Project impact - economic, governmental, environmental, regional and societal impacts.
Who did it
What it produced - the part that outlasts the project - lives under Outputs: the method papers, the Custodian Model, the document library and the product legacy.