MADmed

MADmed is a modular, open-source software platform designed to support medical data interoperability and clinical decision support. The project provides a framework for integrating electronic health records, imaging systems, laboratory data, and research datasets to enable machine-assisted analysis and standardized data exchange across care settings. MADmed is developed by an international community of researchers, clinicians, and technology partners who publish tools and modules under an open-source license.

Architecture and components: MADcore provides rule execution, reasoning, and orchestration. MADdataset defines common data models and mappings to standards such as FHIR and DICOM. MADviz offers visualization dashboards for clinicians. MADnet handles secure data exchange with encryption, access control, and patient consent management. MADlab hosts modular clinical decision-support tools that can be added or updated independently.

Development and governance: The MADmed initiative operates as a community-driven project with a technical steering committee and user advisory board. It adheres to open standards, including HL7 FHIR for data exchange and DICOM for imaging, and promotes interoperability via standardized interfaces and APIs. The software is released under an open-source license, enabling hospitals and researchers to customize and contribute.

Impact and reception: Early pilots have explored MADmed-based decision support for triage, imaging workflow optimization, and data-driven quality improvement. Proponents highlight increased transparency, reproducibility, and collaboration, while critics note challenges in regulatory compliance, data privacy, governance of contributed modules, and the need for robust validation before clinical deployment.

See also: Health informatics, Clinical decision support system, Open-source software in healthcare, Interoperability in healthcare.