OpenMRS in Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries

Dr. Chamaree Chiapetcharasopon, Radiologist, Department of Radiology, Bumrungad International Hospital in Thailand, said there are two types of electronic medical records. "One type is proprietary and may not be the best option for financially sensitive customers in developing countries," she said. "Another type is the free medical record keeping packages available in the market" such as the open source platform specifically developed for developing countries such as the OpenMRS.

The OpenMRS medical record system framework was "formed in 2004 through a multi-institution and non-profit collaboration led by the Regenstrief Institute. Many countries in Asia and Africa are now using the system, including South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania, Haiti, India, China, Pakistan and even in the Unites States."

In Southeast Asia, Dr. Chamaree said Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines are also using the OpenMRS system.

"OpenMRS is a software platform and a reference application which enables design of a customized medical records system with no programming knowledge (although medical and systems analysis knowledge is required)," the website said. "At its core is a concept dictionary which stores all diagnosis, tests, procedures, drugs and other general questions and potential answers. OpenMRS is a client-server application, which means it is designed to work in an environment where many client computers access the same information on a server."