The CODMAN Group is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organisation. Our mission is to enhance medical education, patient care, and research through the promotion of collaboration, the open exchange of data and content, and the transmission of knowledge across academic networks. The “CODMAN” in The CODMAN Group stands for Collaborative for Open Data in Medicine and Academic Networks. It is also a reference to EA CODMAN, a pioneering surgeon who is best known for his “end results idea” and the use of outcome measures to advance the quality and safety of patient care. Dr. CODMAN was an advocate of open data as he believed that all of the information should be made public so that patients could be guided in their choices of physicians and hospitals.

The CODMAN Group is on a quest to create awareness of the possibilities of open data and academic networks in medicine. We are educating the healthcare professionals, institutions, associations, medical companies amd the public about how education, research and ultimately patient care can benefit from open data and academic networks.

The two concepts of open data and academic networks are essential for healthcare reform and can give rise to innovative, fast-paced and high quality medicine due to unencumbered access to resources and the ability to draw on expertise around the world.

Open data is the foundation for effective knowledge translation – making it accessible, understandable, meaningful and able to help solve real problems in medicine, effect change and improve the world. Academic networks have gained popularity with the rise of the Internet and World Wide Web and become more powerful with the advent of online collaborative technologies and social/professional networking. Cooperation, collaboration and network relations are essential for solving the most difficult problems in medicine. Academic networks have the ability to create collective intelligence or wisdom of the crowd.