The State of Open Source Electronic Health Record Projects: A Software Anthropology Study

Alsaffar, Mona; Yellowlees, Peter Mackinlay; Odor, Alberto M; Hogarth, Michael

doi:10.2196/medinform.5783

Cited by 10 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The EHRs era began in the middle of the 1960s when health care professionals changed the direction of patient management toward digital format. EHR systems not only increase accuracy and reduce mistakes through allergy alerts, access to laboratory data, and immunization history but also improve organizational and societal outcomes [ 13 ]. Moreover, the collected patients’ data can be used in research [ 15 - 19 ], giving an opportunity to study diseases and extract knowledge from clinical data.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Open-Source Electronic Health Record Systems for Low-Resource Settings: Systematic Review

Syzdykova¹,

Malta²,

Zolfo³

et al. 2017

JMIR Med Inform

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BackgroundDespite the great impact of information and communication technologies on clinical practice and on the quality of health services, this trend has been almost exclusive to developed countries, whereas countries with poor resources suffer from many economic and social issues that have hindered the real benefits of electronic health (eHealth) tools. As a component of eHealth systems, electronic health records (EHRs) play a fundamental role in patient management and effective medical care services. Thus, the adoption of EHRs in regions with a lack of infrastructure, untrained staff, and ill-equipped health care providers is an important task. However, the main barrier to adopting EHR software in low- and middle-income countries is the cost of its purchase and maintenance, which highlights the open-source approach as a good solution for these underserved areas.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review of open-source EHR systems based on the requirements and limitations of low-resource settings.MethodsFirst, we reviewed existing literature on the comparison of available open-source solutions. In close collaboration with the University of Gondar Hospital, Ethiopia, we identified common limitations in poor resource environments and also the main requirements that EHRs should support. Then, we extensively evaluated the current open-source EHR solutions, discussing their strengths and weaknesses, and their appropriateness to fulfill a predefined set of features relevant for low-resource settings.ResultsThe evaluation methodology allowed assessment of several key aspects of available solutions that are as follows: (1) integrated applications, (2) configurable reports, (3) custom reports, (4) custom forms, (5) interoperability, (6) coding systems, (7) authentication methods, (8) patient portal, (9) access control model, (10) cryptographic features, (11) flexible data model, (12) offline support, (13) native client, (14) Web client,(15) other clients, (16) code-based language, (17) development activity, (18) modularity, (19) user interface, (20) community support, and (21) customization. The quality of each feature is discussed for each of the evaluated solutions and a final comparison is presented.ConclusionsThere is a clear demand for open-source, reliable, and flexible EHR systems in low-resource settings. In this study, we have evaluated and compared five open-source EHR systems following a multidimensional methodology that can provide informed recommendations to other implementers, developers, and health care professionals. We hope that the results of this comparison can guide decision making when needing to adopt, install, and maintain an open-source EHR solution in low-resource settings.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Open-Source Electronic Health Record Systems for Low-Resource Settings: Systematic Review

Syzdykova¹,

Malta²,

Zolfo³

et al. 2017

JMIR Med Inform

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the context of health information technology, meaningful use is defined as the minimum US standard required for using EHR systems and for exchanging information between providers, between providers and insurance companies, and between providers and patients. While we acknowledge that other countries, particularly low- and middle-income countries [1516] might not legislatively require all of these features, their importance in all clinical settings cannot be ignored. Except for OpenEMR, none of the other selected systems have been verified for ONC's meaningful use criteria, though OSEHRA VistA has most of the criteria fulfilled, and some vendor distributions of VistA have been verified.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Comparison of Open-Source Electronic Health Record Systems Based on Functional and User Performance Criteria

et al. 2019

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Objectives Open-source Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems have gained importance. The main aim of our research is to guide organizational choice by comparing the features, functionality, and user-facing system performance of the five most popular open-source EHR systems. Methods We performed qualitative content analysis with a directed approach on recently published literature (2012–2017) to develop an integrated set of criteria to compare the EHR systems. The functional criteria are an integration of the literature, meaningful use criteria, and the Institute of Medicine's functional requirements of EHR, whereas the user-facing system performance is based on the time required to perform basic tasks within the EHR system. Results Based on the Alexa web ranking and Google Trends, the five most popular EHR systems at the time of our study were OSHERA VistA, GNU Health, the Open Medical Record System (OpenMRS), Open Electronic Medical Record (OpenEMR), and OpenEHR. We also found the trends in popularity of the EHR systems and the locations where they were more popular than others. OpenEMR met all the 32 functional criteria, OSHERA VistA met 28, OpenMRS met 12 fully and 11 partially, OpenEHR-based EHR met 10 fully and 3 partially, and GNU Health met the least with only 10 criteria fully and 2 partially. Conclusions Based on our functional criteria, OpenEMR is the most promising EHR system, closely followed by VistA. With regards to user-facing system performance, OpenMRS has superior performance in comparison to OpenEMR.

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Clinical Natural Language Processing with Deep Learning

Hasan

Farri

2019

Data Science for Healthcare

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The State of Open Source Electronic Health Record Projects: A Software Anthropology Study

Cited by 10 publications

References 29 publications

Open-Source Electronic Health Record Systems for Low-Resource Settings: Systematic Review

Open-Source Electronic Health Record Systems for Low-Resource Settings: Systematic Review

Comparison of Open-Source Electronic Health Record Systems Based on Functional and User Performance Criteria

Clinical Natural Language Processing with Deep Learning

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