Going to the source: nonproprietary medical software

Open-source EMR software promises to be everything many electronic medical record systems aren't -- inexpensive, downloadable and easy to modify. But is this software the best fit for your practice?

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. April 11, 2005.

There's a new pitch for selling electronic medical records software. Here's how it goes: Instead of spending big money on proprietary systems that may go obsolete in a matter of few years, why not download a system off the Internet that's not only inexpensive, but also is constantly updated?

And the people making the software better aren't some distant tech-support drones who don't know anything about your practice, but users, including physicians, such as yourself.

That's the promise of what's known as open-source software, which is being created by anyone from lone programmers to two foundations created by proceeds of the Aetna and Cigna class-action lawsuit settlements.

Unlike proprietary software, open-source software is generally free or close to it, but price isn't why it's called open source. It earns that label because developers make the source code of their application freely available so anyone can not only customize it, but also contribute to the application's development by modifying the code, adding to it and debugging it. In other words, the software is developed by an open community of volunteer programmers rather than employed programmers.

Also, their improvements, enhancements and coding are readily available to anyone who downloads them. Developers of open-source software typically don't charge for their application, but can make money by charging for services such as training, maintenance and support.

Low cost is the biggest advantage of open-source software, though that has to be put in context against the cost of all commercial EMRs, which range from a few hundred dollars to more than $1 million. "I'd say that open source is at the bottom of the low-price end of the spectrum," said Larry Ozeran, MD, a general surgeon who is president of Clinical Informatics, a Yuba City, Calif., company that helps doctors select EMRs.