OpenEMR and OpenMRS
For the hospital’s medical records system, I have two open-source software packages under consideration. First impressions:
- OpenMRS is installed widely throughout the developing world, and is backed by powerhouses like Paul Farmer’s PIH and the Gates Foundation. This software seems to be tailored for collecting very structured data on a limited set of patient encounters. On the plus side, this means that large-scale analysis of the data is possible, but at the cost of inflexibility and high cost of implementation if there are many types of interactions that need to be tracked.
- OpenEMR, on the other hand, is a comprehensive software package aimed at general practice medical facilities. It has all kinds of features that are missing in OpenMRS like billing and appointment scheduling. On the other hand, I worry that the custom forms that I can design with it won’t be suited to the reporting and analysis that we need and that OpenMRS makes easy.
I’m not sure where we’ll land, on the balance. In any case, progress has been slow and frustrating. Any unanticipated file (say, XAMPP, at 28MB) can delay installation for a day…
Update (9/6): I’m moving forward with OpenMRS. For more notes on all of the EMR packages I looked at, check out the HEAL Africa ICT wiki.
Related Posts:
- Neal Lesh: OpenMRS, Information Systems for Medicine in the Developing World (November, 2007)
- Making Progress! (September, 2007)
- Bloody Effing Hell (September, 2007)
- Web2.0 Notes: Surfacing Personal Information (April, 2008)
- Work Update (September, 2007)
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