This talk shares insights on the creation of open source software packages related to medical research and practice, especially in terms of enhancing communication and cooperation between engineers/programmers and medical staff. The speaker is both a medical doctor and software engineer who has worked on several projects which required collaboration between engineers and physicians. The talk will cover lessons learned and tips on collaboration between the different disciplines, with the goal of allowing engineers to create better software for the medical community. I will share insights I have come to over years as the main programmer/engineer on several open source projects, including but not limited to: cleanX, ReSurfEMG, and cvasl.