Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Linux EMR lack visibility

Linux EMR lack visibility. I say it just like that. Imagine you are a doctor or it professional and you are thinking something like:

I have used that Linux thing and I wonder if there is any EMR on Linux available.

He or/she than uses Google and searches for Linux EMR. First results are widely viewed. Unfortunately they do not turn up what we had hoped. I would have envisioned a site that lists the FOSS EMR projects or any Linux EMR.

But this site should not just be about the Linux EMR itself. It is the ideal platform to carry a message.

There are many FOSS application but even more they come with full support. You can have an Linux EMR that is supported by any company and not just the producing company.

This site would increase visibility of Linux EMR online and offline. A doctor might say to a collegue.

Check out that site found (e.g. linuxemr.org). There is a whole bunch of EMR which are free to use and change and even if I want to switch all my data can come along.

There is a catch however. While many FOSS EMR are doing a nice job they are not that user/admin friendly when it comes to installing them.

As a FOSS community we should really be getting into packaging. Installation should be painless for most distributions.

2 comments:

Larry and Me said...

I am all about Linux and Open Source but good luck getting any substantial percentage of the U.S. to adopt this product. I work on the largest civilian EMR deployment project in the world, and now with the Stimulus Act driving widespread adoption, you will see more and more Microsoft-like behemonths liks Epic and Cerner than anything else. Perhaps the private practice might take a look at this product, but from my perspective, most organizations will stick with the Big Vendors - much in parallel with the fact that most businesses use MS Windows over viable $-nix alternatives.

GNU might work for PHR, but for enterprise-class EMR/EHR? You are about 10-20 years too late into the market.

Sebastian Hilbert said...

Hi,

We do not care about enterprise. We are doctors in medical offices based in Germany and are looking for ways to make our work easier through software.

U.S. is not our target. Most systems care about billing anyway. GNUmed is different as it cares about the health record and not about billing.

BTW you are never too late into any market. GNU made it into the market despite MS covering around 98% of the desktops.

LinuxEMR should work together as this is the only way to compete if that is intended.