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Electronic Health Record systems (EHR) are essential to improving health quality and managing health care delivery, whether in a large health system, hospital, or primary care clinic. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has developed and continues to maintain a robust EHR known as VistA - the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture. This system was designed and developed to support a high-quality medical care environment for the military veterans in the United States. The VistA system is in production today at hundreds of VA medical centers and outpatient clinics across the country.

VistA has a proven track record of supporting a large variety of clinical settings and medical care delivery systems. Facilities range from small clinics that provide solely outpatient care to large medical centers with significant inpatient populations and their associated specialties, such as surgical care or dermatology. These systems focus on clinically relevant record keeping that improves patient care by improving clinical and administrative decision-making. Versions of this system are in active use in the U.S. Department of Defense Military Health System, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Indian Health Service, and internationally as well, e.g., Mexico - Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social, Berlin Heart Institute of Germany, and National Cancer Institute of Cairo University in Egypt.

The costs associated with the acquisition and support of an EHR can be a barrier to improving the quality of health care provided by limiting the availability of timely and accurate access to electronic patient information. Part of the solution is to lower the cost of acquiring an EHR by using a software stack consisting of open-source, free software such as VistA. VistA is public domain and freely available through the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

OpenMRS EHR

OpenMRS is an application which enables design of a customized medical records system with no programming knowledge (although medical and systems analysis knowledge is required). It is a common framework upon which medical informatics efforts in developing countries can be built. The system is based on a conceptual table structure which is not dependent on the actual types of medical information required to be collected or on particular data collection forms and so can be customized for different uses.

OpenMRS is based on the principle that information should be stored in a way which makes it easy to summarize and analyze, i.e. minimal use of free text and maximum use of coded information. At its core is a concept dictionary which stores all diagnosis, tests, procedures, drugs and other general questions and potential answers. OpenMRS is a client-server application which means it is designed to work in an environment where many client computers access the same information on a server.

At the moment much of the information on these pages is aimed at programmers/developers; however an aim is to provide comprehensive information for:

There are several layers to the system:

1. The OpenMRS data model borrows heavily from the Regenstrief   model, which has over a 30-year history of proven scalability and is also based on a concept dictionary
2. The API (application programming interface) provides a programmatic wrapper around the data model, allowing developers to program against more simplified method calls rather than having to understand the intricacies of the data model
3. The Web Application includes web front-ends and modules that extend the core functions — these are the user interfaces and applications themselves built upon the lower levels

OpenEMR

Electronic Medical Record (EMR) software is designed to allow medical professionals to focus on their patients instead of paperwork. It enhances patient care, saves time and money, improves efficiency and facilitates compliance with current standards and regulations.

OpenEMR is the complete, user-friendly and affordable electronic medical record system. It is fully compliant with HIPAA and industry standards. Its time saving and efficiency enhancing features will revolutionize your practice.

Includes:

• Appointment Scheduling
• Patient Registration
• Payment and Insurance Tracking, Processing and Collecting
• Charting and Record Keeping
• Integration with Other Applications
• Prescription Writing
• Laboratory Tracking
• Patient Check-In/Check-Out, Tracking and Handling

Source

www.worldvista.org

www.openmrs.org

www.openemr.net