4. Medical Record Applications

4.1. Debian Med

The linux distribution by Debian is a well known and highly respected one. The developers are all volunteers and dedicated. Recently, it was announced that Debian would start making a Debian Med Package. This is very very good news, because one of the things Debian is known for is its "APT-GET" interface. This allows applications to be installed with the simple command of "apt-get install [application]". For example, if I wanted to install the OIO record system, I would simply type in 'apt-get install oio' and the apt-get program would not only install the OIO software, but would also install any software that OIO is Dependant on to run, such as the postgres database and Zope software and would configure it so that you could immediately start using it.

If you think I sound enthusiastic about this project, I am, because it simply would be perfect for the rest of the projects that are being developed in that would ease installment.

I urge to visit the Debian Med Homepage, by clicking HERE

4.2. OpenEMR

OpenEMR is a modular, HIPAA compliant, Open Source, cross-platform Electronic Medical Records system (EMRS) developed by Synitech Incorporated (www.synitech.com). It facilitates efficient office management through automated patient record journaling, and has been successfully integrated with third-party technologies including speech recognition, secure wireless access, touch screen portables, and biometric authentication. Interface screens are theme-able and optimized for consistency, simplicity, speed of access to patient information, and minimum eye strain. OpenEMR is based upon widely-used public standards to achieve maximum compatibility with evolving technologies

OpenEMR has been in development and beta testing for the past 2 years, and is finally released to the public for download. The system is cross platform, and operates on top of Apache or IIS, PHP and MySQL. OpenEMR is fully HIPAA compliant and includes advanced authorization and auditing functionality, HIPAA-mandated automatic timeouts, group-based user configuration, extensive logging, and supports patient-requested file changes. There is a growing developer base dedicated to making extensible and configurable encounter forms and patient/office statistical reports, and Synitech will soon release its template Notice of Information Practices intended for use with OpenEMR

I have yet to have any experience with this software. Please let me know if you have experience with it.

I tried installing it, but the instruction are for crap.

4.3. VISTA (DHCP)

VISTA is a huge, VA hospital funded project, electron medical records system. I used this system, when I was a resident, in the Va hospital, and it simply was the best system (that I had used). I'm actually surprised that not more people know about this. I am not sure about the license, but the software and documentation is available under the Freedom of Information Act, but you need to send REQUESTS to get access to the software on CD. They are currently starting to host more and more of the code on-line, though.

4.3.1. Last Update:

Constantly

4.4. SQL Clinic

SQL clinic is an impressive application that was developed for mental health workers, sponsored by their local hospital. What is most impressive is the amount of documentation. However it is unclear how useful the application would be for other non mental-health professionals.

 

To address the point about its utility outside the mental health sector: we are doing a spin-off called (believe it or not) SQL Cafe. Why? The local Indian restaurant (www.tasteofindia.org - I do their web pages) has hired us to design a custom database that tracks vendors, customers, uses a cgi based on-line menu (to replace the html version, so modifications don't require html skills) and so on.

Seriously, one other thing about SQL Clinic is that it was designed to be reverse engineered and used for other purposes. It's all based on Lincoln Stein's CGI.pm module (a terrific tool) and the incredible horsepower of Postgres. So I suspect, once Ingo and I get it a bit more streamlined, that SQL Clinic may have greater utility as an example of how to access postgres via Perl than as a mere clinical application. At least that is our goal.

 
--Thomas Good writes 

4.4.1. Last Update:

Feb 2, 20002

4.5. Electronic Obstetrical Record System

EORS is a quite a well-developed medical management system used by the developers themselves in their OB practice. The layout is somewhat Star Trek-ish, but quite useful and well developed.

4.5.1. Last Update:

Unclear

4.6. Freemed

Freemed is a medical management software package that runs in a web browser window. It currently uses Apache, an SQL back-end (usually MySQL, but there's an SQL Abstraction for this), and PHP, and is non-browser specific. It aims to duplicate all of the functionality of programs such as The Medical Manager, while remaining free to the community.

4.6.1. Last Update

Unclear. July 9, 2001 ?

4.7. Freemed-YiRC

Freemed-YiRC is a PHP package based on Freemed for use with Youth in Residential Care (YiRC) agencies. Its aim is to be a complete package to replace legacy non-free apps which aren't customizable. Since it's PHP-based, all that is needed for the client is a good Web browser with extensive table support. It can use both Postgres and MySQL databases.

4.7.1. Last Update:

02/04/2002

4.8. GNUMed

GNUMed is a GNU's project to develop a comprehensive medical management solution.

4.8.1. Last update:

2000-11-22

4.9. GNotary

GNOTARY is a client that provide the ability to notarize digital documents using a server to prove that digital documents have not been tampered with after their initial creation date. This is a very important piece of software.

The author provides a GNotary server to provide the actually notarization on a separate system.

4.9.1. Last Update:

2001-06-24

4.10. Res Medicinae

Res Medicinae is to become a comprising software solution for use in Medicine which combines intuitive ease of use with the advantages of the CYBOP Framework. It uses latest technology adhering to common standards for medical software and will such be open to many other medical systems.

Res Medicinae is the attempt to overcome high pricing in the realm of Medical Information Systems and to provide users with a free, stable, secure, platform-independent, extensive system.

Res Medicinae is and will be free in every meaning. Its contributors enjoy working together communicating over mailing lists and are encouraged by the idea of sharing their knowledge with those people living on "the poorer side of" the world.

4.11. The LittleFish Health Project

The "Littlefish Health Project" does not exist anymore. Some months ago, the administrators of both projects agreed to merge "Littlefish" into "Res Medicinae". You can still find the Littlefish material on ResMedicinae's website, see the menu there.

4.12. Free Practice Management - FreePM

FreePM is an open source project to create a provider designed patient centered electronic medical record and practice management application. This is probably one of the most developed projects out there, seems already quite usable in its Demo. More significantly, they offer services to help actually run their software in a real office, but all the code is open-source and they seem committed to this philosophy.

I have successfully installed this and gotten it to run. Please look for further info in chapter 7.

Read a review of it HERE.

4.13. Open Infrastructure for Outcomes

OIO is a Web-based information system for treatment outcome management. It is in production at the Harbor/UCLA Medical Center for clinical outcomes management and research data. Forms created with OIO and hosted on any OIO server can be downloaded as XML files. Once downloaded from the "Forms library" and imported into an OIO server, the necessary database tables are automatically recreated and the imported forms become immediately available to the users of that OIO server.

Note: This application is already in quite useful, but lacks 'already-made' forms for use. But these can be quickly designed within the application's interface quickly. Another to really try!

4.13.1. OIO Library

One of the interesting things about OIO project, one that makes it one of my favorites, is the ability to share forms that others have created. However, at this moment there are no forms present, but in the future they will be Here

4.13.2. Update

I have successfully installed this and believe that this is a real contender. In the HOW-TO Install section, I may try to replicate all documents or use the fine documentation and just comment on it, making special note of problems encountered during installation and use

4.14. myPACS

MyPACS is a Web-based medical image management system. It is written in PHP 3.x and uses MySQL for the relational database back-end. It features searching capabilities, uploading of images and patient data from a Web browser into shared and private image repositories, and thumbnail creation and image conversion using ImageMagick. Currently MyPACS is not compatible with the DICOM standard.

4.15. LIMS - Laboratory Information Management Systems

The LIMS ASTM Standard (E1578 Standard Guide for Laboratory Information Management Systems) can be found in ASTM`s Annual Book of Standards Volume 14.01 Healthcare Informatics; Computerized Systems and Chemical and Material Information. There is a small terminology section in this standard that covers 25 terms that relate to LIMS. The purpose of the standard guide is to educate new LIMS users on the purpose and functions and the process of procuring a LIMS.

There is one other additional LIMS related standard in this book. This E2066 Standard Guide for Validation of Laboratory Information Management Systems. The BlazeLIMS Server by Blaze Systems Corporation LIMS is now supported on Linux.

4.16. Meditux

Meditux is Java-servlet based software that provides a Web interface to MySQL or potentially any relational database engine which is JDBC capable. It was developed to support an Intranet site in a medical intensive care unit where it was used to collect clinical and research data.

4.17. MEGA and Mumps Compiler

Mumps Compiler is a compiler for a subset of the Mumps language, a language used mainly in health care. It is compatible with most operating systems with a standard C compiler. License: GPL OMEGA is an Open Source implementation of the M-Technology (MUMPS) programming language. It is extend-able, and currently embedded with MySQL; it is ideal as a trigger/validation front-end to SQL. License: free for non-commercial use.