Open source personal health records (PHRs) and EMRs

November 9, 2006

I routinely get asked about online health records that can be private labeled. Here are some of the options for open source health records management:

If any of you out there would suggest others, let me know.

While independent EMRs and EHRs functions are useful, the most important feature of any product in this space is its support for interoperability. As such, make sure that whatever you choose has some support for standards:

  • HL7
  • ANSI X12′s transaction protocols used for electronic transfer of patient data.
  • CEN’s EN13606 and HISA (if you’re planning to use it in Europe)
  • DICOM (if you want to store diagnostic images)
  • ISO 18308
  • openEHR
  • ASTM International’s Continuity of Care Record

  • Pingback: medmusings

  • http://www.ntst.com Kevin

    That URL for MirrorMed is misspelled. Should be

    http://www.mirrormed.org

  • http://shahid.shah.org Shahid N. Shah

    Fixed it, thanks.

  • http://www.bostonworkstation.com/blog Peter Camp

    What role does open Source have in this? Who do you call when you have an issue? Does the onus fall on team of developers that can support this rather than a software company.

  • http://www.fredtrotter.com Fred Trotter

    Thanks for mentioning MirrorMed. As for VistA, Medsphere has not released anything… and for the time being will probably not be releasing anything. A better link would be to VistA Office. http://www.worldvista.org/VistA_Office

    -FT

  • http://shahid.shah.org Shahid N. Shah

    Thanks, I’ve made the change. I am disappointed by Medsphere’s decisions recently to not open source their offerings.

  • http://shahid.shah.org Shahid N. Shah

    Peter, you asked “Who do you call when you have an issue?” above and it’s a great question. I’ll post a response a new article so everyone can see the answer. Thanks.

  • JoAnn

    What open source PHR is being used in developing countries with very limited budgets? I am particularly interested in public health possiblities where the “center” is a clinic or a small local hospital.

  • http://shahid.shah.org Shahid N. Shah

    JoAnn — well, all open source PHRs are applicable in limited budget situations since they are free from a licensing perspective. There are no metrics for find the “most popular” one, though.

  • http://www.zebrahealth.com Bill O

    I believe the best personal health record option today is the one that is free and online. There are numerous online versions available now, but many of them cost money. The one I currently like is HIPAA compliant and free:

    Zebra Health – http://www.zebrahealth.com/

  • Sanjay Sood

    Shahid, I commend your efforts w.r.t. this blog, keep it up !

    This is an addendum to your response (ref : JoAnn’s comment dated 24th April, 2007).

    Our efforts to have an idea about PHRs’ adoption in developing countries produced no results. We can imply : yet PHRs are a futuristic application of IT in healthcare viz-a-viz developing countries. But yes other forms of Medical eRecords like EMR/EHR have been deployed in developing countries in Asia, Africa and South America. Worth mentioning that some of these are Open Source health records.

  • http://luke.gedeon.name Luke Gedeon

    I am trying to find a way to store a personal health record online and on a USB drive. Seems like most options are either/or. I would like to do both and syncronize. Any ideas?

  • http://recordsresources.com public records

    i think now seems to realise bipartisanship on healthcare is plainly infeasible. It's progress

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