OPSWAT helps San Francisco State University contribute to Healthcare Systems for Developing Countries

OPSWAT's donations to the Computer Science department help students get involved in the development community for OpenMRS, an open source medical records system.

(PRWEB) June 13, 2012--OPSWAT, a San Francisco based security software company, is helping San Francisco State University (SFSU) contribute to the development of OpenMRS, a customizable open source medical records system. As part of an internship program with the computer science department at SFSU, OPSWAT hires students to work at their SOMA office and makes donations to the university and the CS department. OPSWAT makes additional donations to the computer science department’s involvement in OpenMRS to help students participate in coding an open source medical record platform that helps developing countries.

Benny Czarny, CEO of OPSWAT, commented, “We have been continually impressed by the SFSU students who intern at OPSWAT, many of whom are now full-time employees. We’re honored to give back to the community by helping SFSU contribute to a valuable project like OpenMRS.”

OpenMRS is an open source medical record system project which was developed in 2004 by the Regenstrief Institute at Indiana University to support automated record-keeping in developing countries. The widespread use of paper clinical care records in developing countries has made it very difficult to provide quality treatment, ensure the integrity of the data in the records, and form countrywide policies guided by health ministries. By coordinating a global community that creates a robust, scalable, user-driven, open source medical record system platform, OpenMRS aims to improve health care delivery in resource-constrained environments.

The OpenMRS project is facilitated by Partners in Health (PIH), a philanthropic organization with a focus on improving the lives of underprivileged people worldwide through health care service and advocacy. By working in the field to deploy and configure OpenMRS in developing countries, PIH is a critical part of increasing the use of this health record system.

Dr. Barry Levine, a Professor in the SFSU Computer Science Department, leads SFSU’s involvement in OpenMRS. He has helped students become a part of the OpenMRS development community, where they get important coding experience while contributing to a meaningful project. Students are currently building tools to enable pharmacy-related tools (e.g., prescriptions, inventory management) to be managed through OpenMRS. OPSWAT’s donations through the internship program with SFSU have helped increase learning about the OpenMRS system; by investigating how the system is being used in developing countries such as Rwanda, Uganda, Armenia and Vietnam, Dr. Levine and the students in his department can develop systems that are much more effective.

“We greatly appreciate OPSWAT’s contributions to the SFSU Computer Science department and to the OpenMRS project. Their support helps students gain invaluable experience while contributing to an immensely important cause, which has the potential to save many lives,” said Dr. Levine.

For more information about OpenMRS, please visit http://openmrs.org.

About OPSWAT (http://www.opswat.com)

Founded in 2002, OPSWAT is the industry leader in software management SDKs, interoperability certification and multiple-engine malware scanning solutions. With both software manageability and multi-scanning products, OPSWAT offers simplified and comprehensive SDKs that reduce time and costs for your engineering and testing teams. OPSWAT delivers: OESIS Framework, an open development framework that enables software engineers to develop products that manage thousands of third-party software applications; Multi-scanning products including Metascan, MetaDefender for Media and MetaDefender for Secure Access, which optimize several anti-malware engines to scan for viruses simultaneously (a free online demo of the Metascan antivirus API is available at http://www.metascan-online.com, a fast file scanning tool using many antivirus engines); Secure Virtual Desktop, a sandboxing solution for secure and private web browsing; AppRemover, a free utility that enables the complete uninstallation of security applications; and GEARS, a white-labeled, cloud-based solution for monitoring and managing computers, servers, and switches.