Posts By Lorie Obal

Open Source and Molar Man

I just attended the Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE 8) and saw an eye-popping presentation on an Open Source dental practice management application that was written by a dentist in Inverness, Scotland as a response to ill treatment he’d received at the hands of a proprietary software vendor. Apparently he’d attended a previous conference inRead… Read more »

Exciting news for the VHA and open source healthcare information technology

The Open Source community has a history of using the FOIA version of the VHA’s VistA/CPRS and making it accessible for use outside the VHA. The open source, Liberty Medical Software Foundation has now started an organization proposing collaboration with the VHA for further development and innovation of the VHA’s system. In this time ofRead… Read more »

Squeezing blood out of closed source software customers

I just saw the new on Microsoft’s new “pricing plan” for its “free” online version of office. While working my way through grad school doing consulting for a medium sized business, I see once again the “incompatibility creep” being introduced in the new version of office. Since the company uses Open Office – I wonderRead… Read more »

Another Open Source EMR gaining momentum

I just saw that “Medical” is an another open source electronic medical record (EMR) (term sometimes used interchangeably with EHR, depending on functionality) has just won some kudos over at Sourceforge Their stated goal: ” Provide an universal Electronic Medical Record (EMR), so doctors and institutions all over the world, independently of their economic status,Read… Read more »

Open Source – getting more respect for Electronic Health Record Certification

As the ARRA-driven momentum builds toward EHR adoption by physicians, the issue of certification for these systems still has some issues to resolve. The high cost of certification has been seen as prohibitive for affordable, open source EHRs seeking to compete in this new marketplace. Other potential roadblocks are the ability to modify source code,Read… Read more »