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The Linux Foundation plans to launch the Open Health Stack Software Foundation, backed by Google, the World Health Organisation and more than 20 other organisations.
The new body is intended to serve as a neutral home for open source software used to build digital health applications, including systems that use artificial intelligence. The effort aims to address fragmentation in digital health infrastructure, which can make it harder for systems to work together across care settings and national health programmes.
Google will contribute the Open Health Stack project to the foundation, including its code and related assets. Google.org will also provide a USD $3 million grant to support the organisation.
Open Health Stack was launched in 2023 by Google and has since been used by a broader group of developers and implementers. Under the proposed foundation structure, the software will move into a community-governed setting under the Linux Foundation umbrella.
The project will focus on three technical areas: core HL7 FHIR foundations; a multiplatform reference toolkit known as the OHS Player for local deployments; and AI Commons, described as a neutral, model-agnostic space for artificial intelligence in global health that was co-developed with WHO.
Jim Zemlin, Chief Executive Officer of the Linux Foundation, outlined the group's view of the role open source software could play in health technology.
"Open source has already transformed enterprise software, cloud computing, and AI, and it will do the same for how the world delivers care. The Open Health Stack Software Foundation brings together the global community of developers, health organizations, and implementers under a vendor-neutral, community-governed home, ensuring that the tools powering tomorrow's AI-enabled health systems are built in the open, for everyone," said Jim Zemlin, Chief Executive Officer, Linux Foundation.
The foundation is also designed to support developers in low- and middle-income countries. An Implementer Program will allow small businesses, local consulting firms and pre-revenue startups to take part in governance without financial barriers.
That approach reflects a central theme behind the launch: digital health systems often depend on technology and standards shaped far from the places where they are deployed. Supporters of the foundation argue that broader governance could help local implementers shape software around their own health system needs.
Kat Chou, Vice President at Google Research, said the contribution is meant to help the project continue developing under a broader governance model.
"We built Open Health Stack because we wanted to put the developers and community health care workers serving people on the edges of care back at the center of development and give them access to world-class tools for building next-gen digital health solutions. Contributing OHS to the Linux Foundation, with the support of WHO and a growing global community, ensures these building blocks will continue to evolve - now extending into AI for Global Digital Health - under governance that reflects the diversity of the communities they serve. OHS-SF makes it easier for developers everywhere to innovate on the next generation of digital health applications, and we're proud to support its long-term success," said Chou.
Broad support
Organisations expressing support include technology groups, health non-profits, academic institutions and multilateral bodies. They include Microsoft, Anthropic, PATH, OpenMRS, Medtronic Labs, the Clinton Health Access Initiative, the Asia eHealth Information Network, and the Centre for Global Digital Health Innovation at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The World Bank Group and UNICEF are also providing advisory support. UNICEF and WHO were among the organisations linking the initiative to broader efforts to build digital public infrastructure and improve the use of open standards in public health systems.
Alain Labrique, Director, World Health Organisation Department of Data, Digital Health, Analytics and Artificial Intelligence, said the technical standards behind the effort were tied to wider health system goals.
"WHO's normative work, from SMART Guidelines to the WHO-ITU Reference Architecture for Digital Public Infrastructure, is built on the conviction that robust code and open interoperability standards like HL7 FHIR and ICD are not technical preferences but the precondition for health equity at scale. The Open Health Stack Software Foundation operationalizes that conviction in code. By providing community-maintained, standards-conformant libraries and toolkits, it lowers the cost of doing the right thing for every developer building health solutions, and it signals to countries and development partners that sustainable and interoperable digital health infrastructure is achievable today, and primed for the next wave of verifiable AI for health sector goals," said Labrique.
Local deployment
Several supporters pointed to existing deployments as evidence that common tools can be adapted for national or regional use. Summit Institute for Development said Open Health Stack tools have been used to enable OpenSRP 2 within Indonesia's national and regional health system, reaching 2.9 million people with scope for wider deployment across hundreds of districts.
Others emphasised governance and standards. The Asia eHealth Information Network, HELINA and Argusoft highlighted the importance of interoperable and locally adaptable systems, particularly in resource-constrained settings where the cost and complexity of proprietary software can limit adoption and long-term maintenance.
The foundation is now open for participation, with the aim of building a community-led structure around the software stack and its related standards. More than 20 organisations have already signalled support, alongside a USD $3 million grant and the transfer of the existing Open Health Stack project from Google.