
OpenEMR v5.0.1 - exception_e
http://www.openhealthnews.com/content/openemr-community-releases-monumental-upgrade-their-open-source-ehr-update-ready-download
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exception_e
I am looking for some strong server side programmer volunteers (and volunteers
of _all_ types)! Email is in my profile.

Be a force for good in the developing world !

[https://open-emr.org/welcome/](https://open-emr.org/welcome/)

-Matthew (OpenEMR Admin)

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cassowary37
I'm late to the game but wanted to provide some context for the discussion.
The dominant EMR in hospitals is Epic - can't find a cite but the ballpark is
that more than 80% of academic medical centers __have adopted (ie, paid
through the nose for) Epic.

As a clinician, I find Epic to be horribly clunky - it definitely detracts
from time with patients and impairs collaboration among clinicians by 'hiding'
important details in multiple sections/submenus. It's like a Frankenstein's
monster of Windows 3.1 and Atari 2600 Basic.

As a researcher, the very restrictive agreements that Epic insists upon have a
profound impact on our ability to a) make good use of health records data for
research and b) develop extensions to Epic, for things like decision support
and risk stratification. (In the latter case, they essentially 'own' anything
that touches their code.)

BUT - like the old saying goes, no one ever got fired for buying IBM.

Moral of the story: Hooray for OpenEMR, VistA, and all the open platforms!
This round was lost to Epic, but hopefully the next round we can do better.

(edit: __\- academic medical centers in the US. Rest of world, you can do
better!)

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gravypod
From what I understand the software for EMRs isn't very complicated (message
queue + message parsing + encryption). What is an issue is integration with
other provides who....

    
    
        1. Have the data you need
        2. Charge a huge premium for integration
        3. Don't like giving up their data
        4. Always have their slight twist on message format
    

This is a huge step forward still. This kind of software is not easy to get
right. Soooo many variables and sooooo much demanded customization as well as
almost mandatory adherence to incumbent UI designs

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exception_e
Actually, you'd be surprised. There are not many good EHRs out there. It's all
about the features and the ability to make the system work with your workflows
and use cases.

Of course, your points are valid though! That is the state of the "behind the
scenes" side of things :).

EDIT: Just saw your edit and your correct assessment of the need for a great
UI (we have gaps, but a good team working on it).

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hanklazard
Having used many EMRs over the past 10 years, I totally agree—there are not
many (any?) good EMRs out there. Most are clunky UI/UX nightmares that end up
interrupting the visit and leave me frustrated and staring at a screen far
more than I should be.

I stumbled across OpenEMR a few months ago (as I was cursing Epic and praying
for a better open source option) and must say that I’m impressed with the
speed of progress. I’m certainly not a developer but I am a physician—if you
need any more volunteers from medical personnel, I would be more than happy to
help.

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behindmyscreen
90% of Epic's issue is how a Hospital implements it. It is so configurable
that compliance and leadership will lean on it way more than they should to
drive policy leading to BPAs, poorly created OrderSets, and way too many
documentation points that contain low value....Then there is the case of not
implementing the features that Epic releases that will make life better for
the users because the IT department is underfunded or the leadership does not
want to change....and then the fact that many users do not like to be trained
on how to improve their use of the system.

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JshWright
The other issue with Epic is that it's designed for hospitals. The parent
comment sounds like a doc in a smaller practice. There are certainly EMRs out
there better suited to that environment (disclaimer: I work for one that I
think does an especially good job at that)

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hanklazard
Yes, I primarily work in a small clinic setting, though I've also used Epic in
a hospital setting and have been similarly unimpressed! ;)

In general, I think that EMRs try to cram as much information onto the screen
as possible, without enough thought toward what pieces of information are
useful at particular times. It's like the opposite of the experience that I
have on a well-designed website. Most of my complaints are around that
phenomenon, as well as all of the unnecessary clicking / scrolling required
due to poor design. I also think that the cost of implementing / migrating
these systems is insane, especially when that just adds to our already
overpriced health care system. It's hard not to think that companies that
build EMRs prefer to be as closed and proprietary as possible, to prevent an
easy switch to a competitor.

A few things that I do like in Epic and think are generally good features in
EMRs: -lots of shortcut keys -saved phrases (I think they're called "smart
phrases" or some nonsense like that) -single click connectivity into clinical
resource websites and some hospital portals -modern browser support (I
seriously used to use an EMR that could only be accessed on an old version of
Internet Explorer -- "just make sure you don't let the computer update the
browser") -eprescribing

My favorite EMR of the 10 or so that I've used was at the VA. (I've heard,
though not verified, that that EMR was licensable for almost no cost outside
of the VA, but was ignored in favor of "nicer" systems.) I don't know if it is
the same now, but it was extremely simple in appearance with some basic fields
for writing notes, an image viewer, a quick way to order and review labs, etc.
Looked almost like a terminal. Copy/paste functionality. Most importantly,
because it was used at every VA in the country, I was able to easily review
records/labs/images from, for example, a 65 yr old veteran who had just moved
from across the country. No faxes, no scanning. It is this sort of uniform
system for data access that we are missing right now in medicine in the US and
it is wasting time, costing us a lot of money, and damaging patient care.

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tim333
It's kind of a shame about VistA, the VA system. It's the most widely used
well liked hospital system

>The VistA system is highly rated by physicians, receiving the highest overall
score in Medscape surveys of over 15,000 physicians in 2014 and again in 2016,
receiving particularly high marks for connectivity and utility as a clinical
tool.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VistA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VistA)

and available free open source
[http://worldvista.org/AboutVistA/copy2_of_index_html](http://worldvista.org/AboutVistA/copy2_of_index_html)

but hospitals instead spend hundreds of millions on Epic and Cerner who I
presume have fancy sales teams to push those to hospital managers.

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fleetingmoments
It's also written in an obsolete, obscure programming language
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUMPS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUMPS) .

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tim333
Mumps is also used by Epic, the market leader and various banks. It or a
variant is being developed by InterSystems who claim their system is the
world’s fastest object database. So it struggles on. It actually sounds quite
interesting tech.

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kofiav
I started contributing to OpenEMR 1-2 years ago. Great community! If this is
your first foray into open-source I'd highly recommend getting in touch with
the admin and getting involved in the many exciting projects happening. We are
currently working on integrating OpenEMR with PACS so if you are interested
feel free to reach out to me or OP!

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exception_e
Thanks :)

We are better off for you!!!

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exception_e
Getting a LOT of emails from interested programmers. Woot! Please get in touch
for non-programmer roles too (documentation, clinical, infra, ui, design, etc)

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behindmyscreen
What is the ODB for this?

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exception_e
ODB?

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jpfed
Ol' Dirty Bastard, a former member of the Wu Tang Clan who died in 2004. Java
has long had the ability to communicate with his departed spirit with its ODBC
technology.

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projektfu
Clearly downvoted because you called a Windows tech a Java tech

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gandhirajan
OpenEMR 5.0.1 is truly a game changing release for OpenEMR users. The features
like Image viewer, Docker integration are really cool and handy. Also looking
forward for more exciting features like cTAKES integration.

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77pt77
Archived version, since the site seems to be down.

[https://archive.is/GDVO5](https://archive.is/GDVO5)

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steemr
really good people are involved with this software project and they make it
easy and fun to contribute; there's still a ton of work to do so get involved
if you're able

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brady_m
I'm a volunteer that has been contributing to OpenEMR for more than a decade
and the last year, which is well represented by this 5.0.1 release, has been
by far the funnest and most exciting yet. It's a great community that is open
to volunteers of all types; come check us out.

