OpenEMR: Open-source medical record software
open-emr.org
OpenEMR: Open-source medical record software
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Re: OpenEMR: Open-source medical record software
#2OpenEMR seems like it could have a market opportunity, in principle. The EMR market in the US is dominated by two big, unpopular systems (Cerner and Epic). A smaller, nimbler competitor could make inroads among health systems that don't like that duopoly.
Does anyone have any stories about setting up / using OpenEMR?
Re: OpenEMR: Open-source medical record software
#3I know basking projects based on their choice of language is controversial, but PHP really is pushing it for me. And for medical data, too. PHP isn't boring technology - Java is boring technology - PHP is downright dangerous.
Re: OpenEMR: Open-source medical record software
#4OpenEMR seems like it could have a market opportunity, in principle. The EMR market in the US is dominated by two big, unpopular systems (Cerner and Epic). A smaller, nimbler competitor could make inroads among health systems that don't like that duopoly. Does anyone have any stories about setting up / using OpenEMR?
As someone (biased) who works with one of those two, I have a hard time believing the complexity of installing an EMR can be handled by this type of project.
The challenges are not the challenges of tech. They aren't sexy. It is just really boring and complex business logic and the strength of both those companies is the vast amount of support they provide during install and future maintenance.
The problem is less about software that works, more about finding standardized workflows even within the same hospital. Or building in enough configurability to support all conceivable workflows - which leads back to the requirement above of very robust support.
Re: OpenEMR: Open-source medical record software
#5OpenEMR seems like it could have a market opportunity, in principle. The EMR market in the US is dominated by two big, unpopular systems (Cerner and Epic). A smaller, nimbler competitor could make inroads among health systems that don't like that duopoly. Does anyone have any stories about setting up / using OpenEMR?
As someone (biased) who works with one of those two, I have a hard time believing the complexity of installing an EMR can be handled by this type of project. The challenges are not the challenges of tech. They aren't sexy. It is just really boring and complex business logic and the strength of both those companies is the vast amount of support they provide during install and future maintenance. The problem is less ab…
Thanks for sharing your insights.
One wonders if the business model for supporting efforts like this could be to provide the support/services, while keeping the code base open source?
Re: OpenEMR: Open-source medical record software
#6Ok. However.
If I'm running a hospital, I want my record software to be developed and maintained by a company that can pay its developers.
The place for openness, vendor neutrality and transparency are protocols and file formats, which define how different software communicate.
Re: OpenEMR: Open-source medical record software
#7OpenEMR seems like it could have a market opportunity, in principle. The EMR market in the US is dominated by two big, unpopular systems (Cerner and Epic). A smaller, nimbler competitor could make inroads among health systems that don't like that duopoly. Does anyone have any stories about setting up / using OpenEMR?
In the dental space, the market opportunity has been demonstrated by OpenDental, a GPL competitor in the dental space. Others include Epic and Dentrix.
Re: OpenEMR: Open-source medical record software
#8I know basking projects based on their choice of language is controversial, but PHP really is pushing it for me. And for medical data, too. PHP isn't boring technology - Java is boring technology - PHP is downright dangerous.
Php is strictly for websites, according to any sources but PHP devs.
Medical records is not a website.
Re: OpenEMR: Open-source medical record software
#9There's a saying in hospital tech sales: if you've seen one hospital's stack, you've seen one stack.
The sheer amount of bespoke deployments and lack of interoperability in these facilities would blow the average HN reader's mind. And through the inertia of these deployments and their (absolutely necessary) adherence to HIPAA and SoC, getting any kind of competitor in, much less one with the lack of support resources like an open source project, is nearly impossible.
I do believe in the mission of these guys, though! I just think EMR is so complex and entrenched that they don't have much hope of success, at least not the way most OSS does in the SaaS world
Re: OpenEMR: Open-source medical record software
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone (biased) who works with one of those two, I have a hard time believing the complexity of installing an EMR can be handled by this type of project. The challenges are not the challenges of tech. They aren't sexy. It is just really boring and complex business logic and the strength of both those companies is the vast amount of support they provide during install and future maintenance. The problem is less ab…
Thanks for sharing your insights. One wonders if the business model for supporting efforts like this could be to provide the support/services, while keeping the code base open source?
That's how OpenDental handles it.