Terms of Use of the openEHR Clinical Knowledge Manager

IMPORTANT NOTICE – PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY

 

The openEHR CKM (http://www.openEHR.org/ckm) and any information and materials contained within it are made freely available by the openEHR Foundation (http://www.openEHR.org) (“we” or “us”).

We welcome you as a user or member of the openEHR CKM community.

Before you use the site or participate in any activities we require that you read and agree to the following Terms of Use.

These Terms of Use explain about the CKM service, our relationship to you as a user, and the rights and responsibilities for us and for you.

Our CKM service

The openEHR Foundation is dedicated to the development of freely available clinical content artefacts that can be shared and re-used. The intent is that these artefacts can be used as a common basis for recording and exchanging health information, to simplify aggregation of data, to support knowledge-based activities and for comparative data analysis. Broad engagement with clinicians and other domain experts will be encouraged in order to ensure that these artefacts will be useful in many countries and across a broad range of clinical contexts.

This openEHR CKM has three main functions:

  1. It is a library of computable clinical artefacts, such as archetypes, templates and terminology reference sets, plus related resources,
  2. It promotes international collaboration by domain experts, especially the involvement of clinicians, to develop the clinical artefacts and to verify that these are ‘fit for purpose’ in eHealth software applications.
  3. It provides a framework and processes to support governance of the clinical artefacts.

Our CKM artefacts

The clinical artefacts made available on openEHR Clinical Knowledge Manager are made available 'as is' and in good faith. openEHR makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy, adequacy, completeness, and fitness for a particular purpose in respect of any materials made available through openEHR Clinical Knowledge Manager.  

The CKM community is continually striving to develop and govern a high quality resource of computable clinical artefacts. However the combination of a dynamic clinical knowledge domain and collaborative Web2.0 participation process means that at any point in time each clinical content model should be regarded as a ‘work in progress’.

The lifecycle status of each artefact is based on the publication status of the clinical content, however the publication status of translations and terminology bindings are also explicitly specified for each artefact.

Those artefacts where the clinical content status is marked as ‘published’ should be considered to be stable, with the proviso that if a new clinical requirement is identified or clinical knowledge changes, then this may trigger the need for a new revision. Artefacts that are in pre-draft/initial, draft or ‘in review’ status should be regarded as unstable and be used cautiously within any software implementation. Accordingly, you need to make your own assessment as to the suitability of any clinical models and other material made available for your purposes and you acknowledge and agree that you use any such clinical models at your own risk.

As such, any clinical artefact or related material made available through the openEHR CKM may be revised from time to time. We reserve the right to withdraw or modify materials made available on the openEHR CKM in any way without having to provide reasons or giving prior notice, however we will endeavour to ensure that details of any activity and the reasons for it are clearly recorded, include directions to a replacement artefact, if appropriate. When modifications are made to a artefact, it will be possible to compare the latest version with any prior version.

Other material may be associated with any clinical content model. These materials may include reference documents or design documentation, transformations, sample code etc. These materials are used to support understanding of the clinical model, providing insight into original requirements gathering, potential use cases, or guidance for implementation.

Our CKM community

Anyone can freely browse through CKM, without registering any personal details, and download clinical content models as they require.

Members can voluntarily contribute to the collaborative development and verification of the clinical artefacts through: participating in content, terminology binding and translation reviews; submitting candidate translations; and joining in discussion forums.

Editors take a leadership role in the development and evolution of the clinical models by facilitating review rounds where members contribute feedback that is used to modify and enhance the content of the clinical models; determine precise technical representation of the clinical data; ensure appropriate terminology bindings; and accurate translations of the models.

Clinical Knowledge Administrators are appointed by the openEHR Foundation and have ultimate responsibility for governance and maintenance of the CKM, the quality and integrity of the clinical artefacts and management of teams and user roles within the participating community.

Password Security

You are responsible for safeguarding your own password and should never disclose it to any third party. In addition, you are responsible for all activities that occur under your user name and password. You must immediately notify us if you become aware of any unauthorised use.

Licensing

The openEHR Foundation is dedicated to making the clinical artefacts freely accessible to the public, under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license (CC-BY-SA).

We require that any contribution that you make to the CKM is made in the same spirit, so that the CKM artefacts can be freely shared and adapted as specified under the CC-BY-SA license. In order for this to happen, we need you to agree to the following licensing requirements:

  1. Contributions to which you hold the copyright: When you submit contributions to which you hold the copyright, such as clinical expertise or a candidate translation, you agree to license it under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (“CC BY-SA”).
  2. Attribution: The openEHR community philosophy is based on giving credit where credit is due – to contributors like yourself. When you contribute in any way to the development of an artefact, you agree to be attributed in any of the following ways in the metadata of the artefact:
    • As a primary author/s of an artefact, you will be recorded as the “Original Author”;
    • As a participant in a review, you will be recorded in a list of “Contributors”; and
    • As a translator, you will be recorded as a “Translator”.

Please note that the CC-BY-SA license does allow commercial use of your contributions, as long as such uses are compliant with the license terms.

Your conduct

The openEHR CKM is made up of a unique and vibrant community of users who are collaborating with the intent to develop standardised clinical content that will potentially have a significant impact on healthcare delivery. We welcome your active participation but encourage you to be respectful in all of your interactions with others in the community, to act in good faith, and positively contribute to furthering the collective objective of the CKM community.

Certain activities, whether legal or illegal, may be harmful to other users and violate our rules, and some activities may also subject you to liability. Therefore, for your own protection and for that of other users, you may not engage in such activities. These activities include:

  • Harassing and abusing others;
  • Violating the privacy of others;
  • Engaging in false statements, impersonation, or fraud;
  • Committing infringements on copyright, trademarks, patents or other proprietary rights; and
  • Engaging in disruptive and illegal misuse of CKM facilities.

With specific reference to the discussion forums, we do not accept any responsibility or liability for material posted by you on the forums, nor do we accept any responsibility for any use or misuse which you or any other user make of material available on these forums.

We reserve the right to exercise our enforcement discretion with respect to rule violation. Any material posted by you which violates these rules may be edited or removed at our sole discretion.  A continued breach of these rules could lead to your membership of the community being reviewed and possibly revoked.

Termination

Though we hope you will stay and continue to contribute to the CKM Community, you can stop using CKM at any time. You can delete your registered account details, although your public contributions will remain publicly available.

In certain circumstances it may be necessary for us to terminate part or all of our CKM services, terminate these Terms of Use, or ban you as a member by removing or blocking your account. If your account is blocked or otherwise terminated, your public contributions will remain publicly available and, unless we notify you otherwise, you may still access CKM in the same way as any other unregistered user. In such circumstances, however, you may not be able to access your account or settings. We reserve the right to suspend or end the services at any time, with or without cause, and with or without notice.

Disclaimers

We require that you to agree that your use of CKM, or participation in our CKM community, is at your sole risk. We provide the CKM services on an "as is" and "as available" basis, and we expressly disclaim all express or implied warranties of all kinds, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We make no express or implied warranty that our services will meet your requirements, be safe, secure, uninterrupted, timely, accurate, adequate, complete or error-free, or that your information will be secure.

We are not responsible for the content or actions of third parties, and you release us, our directors, officers, employees, and agents from any claims and damages, known and unknown, arising out of or in any way connected with any claim you have against any such third parties. No advice or information, whether oral or written, obtained by you from us or through or from our services creates any warranty not expressly stated in these Terms of Use.

Any artefacts or related material obtained through your use of our services is done at your own discretion and risk, and you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from the download of any such material. You agree that we have no responsibility or liability for the deletion of, or the failure to store or to transmit, any content or communication maintained by the service.

You are required to acknowledge that CKM traffic and usage may be monitored like most websites to determine utilisation, server usage and performance. All traffic monitoring is anonymous.

Limitation on Liability

We will not be liable to you or to any other party for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or exemplary loss or damages, including but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data, or other intangible losses suffered by you as a result of, or in connection with your use of the openEHR CKM.

Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold the openEHR foundation and its agents harmless from any claim or demand (including legal fees) made by any third party arising out of, or in connection with, any material submitted, posted, transmitted or otherwise made available by you through the openEHR CKM, your use of the openEHR CKM, or your breach of these terms.

Governing Law

These terms and conditions are governed by the laws in force in England.

Compensation

We require that, unless otherwise agreed to in writing by us, you have no expectation of compensation for any activity, contribution, or idea that you provide to us, the community, or CKM services.

Notifications

You agree that we may provide you with notices, including those regarding changes to the Terms of Use, by email, regular mail, or postings on Project websites.

Privacy Policy

We ask that you review our Privacy Policy, so that you understand what information we collect, how we collect it and how we use your information.

Changes to these Terms of Use

The openEHR Foundation may change the terms of this Privacy Policy from time to time in response to new laws or technology, and changes to the openEHR CKM operations. If such changes are made, you will be notified of this the next time you log in to the openEHR CKM.

Access to Latest Version

The most current version of the Terms of Use can be reviewed at any time by clicking on the "Terms of Use" link located in the CKM Help menu.

Consent

For the protection of the openEHR Foundation and the openEHR CKM community, if you do not agree with our Terms of Use, you cannot use our services

By accessing or using the openEHR CKM, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Use.  

If you object to these terms or any subsequent modifications, you should immediately discontinue use of the openEHR CKM.

 

(Last updated 02-Apr-2014)