Publications
A coherent, practical case for an open, sustainable digital health ecosystem, designed to be read in order.
This library sets out a practical case for an open, sustainable digital health
ecosystem. It combines foundational framing with operational playbooks,
investment logic and governance guidance, and it explains what is broken, what
must change, and how organisations can act without reinventing standards,
platforms or institutions.
Read it in order. The first documents establish shared understanding. The later
ones provide the tools to govern, fund, implement and sustain change.
The library
Foundational documents first. These establish the shared framing used throughout.
Manifesto
Citizens Own Their Health - but not yet their health data
Stuart Mackintosh, Bert Verdonck, Alexander Inchbald
The DHCF manifesto: 95 short, declarative theses in the lineage of Luther's 95 and the Cluetrain Manifesto's 95, translated into the language health has been waiting to hear. Each thesis stands alone, sharp enough to carry a single article and a single post; together they build a worldview. The title is a statement of fact, not an aspiration - citizens own their health; the argument is about the data, which they do not yet own and cannot yet reach. Every claim carries a source. Read this first: it is the framing the rest of the library assumes. Version 7, September 2026.
manifesto; ownership; health data; commons; European Health Data Space
September 2026 · PDF, 104 KB
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Foundational
01
Defining the Open Digital Health Commons
Bert Verdonck, Jaana Sinipuro and Stuart Mackintosh
Establishes what the Digital Health Commons is, why open source alone is insufficient, and how shared governance and stewardship enable sustainable, trustworthy digital health.
commons; governance; stewardship
24 October 2025 · PDF, 1.6 MB
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Diagnosis
02
The Digital Health Landscape: what is broken and why
Hanna Pohjonen and David Jobling
Diagnoses systemic failures in digital health, including fragmentation, lock-in and weak governance, explaining why well-funded initiatives repeatedly fail to deliver lasting value.
fragmentation; lock-in; procurement; governance
10 April 2026 · PDF, 160 KB
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The missing layer
03
The Role of the Custodians
David Jobling
Introduces custodians as the missing organisational layer, showing how accountable, locally grounded stewardship sustains open systems, standards and public value over time.
custodians; stewardship; capacity; sustainability
2 May 2026 · PDF, 2.3 MB
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Video
EHRCON24: the video library
Eleven clinicians, architects and implementers
Eleven conversations recorded at EHRCON24 with the people who have spent careers on open health records: what is broken, why, and what they have already built in response. No paywall and no sign-up.
openEHR; interoperability; implementation; clinical leadership
November 2024
Watch the series →
The founding statement
Outline thesis
Written in Spring 2023, this is the argument the Forum was founded on: the
problem stated by stakeholder group, the ambition, the case for custodians, and
the route from launch to systemic change. It predates the library above and is
kept as the record of where the work started.
Read the thesis →
More documents are in preparation, including operational playbooks and
governance guidance. If you would like to be told when they appear,
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