CS373 - Open Source Software Scenario 4

Scenario 4: Healthcare Data Analytics Platform

Potential Benefits of Open Source:

• Transparency and trust: Open code could build confidence among hospitals, doctors, and patients, especially around algorithm fairness and bias.
• Collaborative improvements: Researchers in medicine, data science, and ethics could audit, test, and improve the algorithms.
• Regulatory alignment: Some governments may soon require transparency in AI-driven healthcare tools; being open source could prepare the company for this shift.

Potential Risks/Challenges:

• Competitive risk: Other companies could reuse the algorithms to build competing platforms.
• Patient privacy concerns: Although anonymized data isn’t in the code, openness might raise fears about data security.
• Support and liability: Bugs or errors in healthcare analytics could have life-or-death consequences. The company might face lawsuits if people assume the open-source version is “official.”