Opportunity Awaits, Open Source EMR

Linux, MySQL, PHP, Joomla, Audacity, the list goes on. I love open source technologies and applications. The lure of an open source medical practice software package is its price, FREE and there are several packages to choose from:

OpenEMR - a free medical practice management, electronic medical records, prescription writing, and medical billing application.
MirrorMed - a web-based application that is capable of running a healthcare practice. MirrorMed shares code with FreeMED, and OpenEMR.
FreeMED - GPL-licensed Electronic Medical Record and Practice Management system for medical providers that runs in any web browser in multiple languages. It provides an XML-RPC backend and multiple import and export formats, as well as reporting and other features.

The concern, or opportunity, with open source EMR applications for small physician practices is ongoing support. During the early 90s in my professional career as a regional IT Integrator we installed Linux running SAMBA fileserver in small offices. At that time, if a small business wanted to install Windows NT server along with the appropriate license fees cost an “arm and leg”, so to say the least we did VERY well. What I learned during this time was most small businesses had a brother, brother in-law, a kid in high school, nephew, or some other family member that provided basic computer support, i.e. adding users, shares, etc. However, Linux wasn’t a OS that was being discussed in A+ training classes, nor discussed in basic networking classes and only the most geeky of brother in-laws even knew how to pronounce Lin-us, oops, I meant Linux. So after implementation, these small offices had to contact us, or should I say contract with us, for ongoing support. In most cases, even with the ongoing support fees, the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) was still much less than the TCO of Windows NT Server and the appropriate license fees over a 3 year lifespan. This was a WIN/WIN scenario for both the supplier and client.

But we did have a subset of clients that were upset their TCO were more than the intial cost of implementing the solution because of ongoing support costs. Although the ongoing support fees were explained upfront prior to implementation, this subset of clients believed their “family hackers” would be able to give them free support as they have always done. When their displeasure with our support fees drove them to seek another vendor there was none in the area that was familiar enough with Linux to support it, and there was no manufacturer to call because it was an open source product, so in a way we were the only ones that could assist them.

In any case, as the face of Healthcare IT radically changes, and with the federal government stimulus package earmarking loans and grants for providers to deploy e-health records, now is the time for savy IT Integrators to develop a niche market using open source EMR applications.