Open Source Health IT Solutions for Governments to Consider

Healthcare is a major budget item for government at all levels.There are now many high quality, free and open source Health IT systems that community hospitals and clinics should consider using as an alternative to more expensive commercial systems. This could save state & local governments ‘big’ bucks.

Check out the most popular ‘open source’ or ‘public domain’ Health IT systems listed under the Resources Section on Open Health News (OHN), according to their readers. They are ranked by the number of people viewing the software product during 2011, starting with the most visited ones.

Ranking #1-10
• VistA [VA VistA, OpenVistA, vxVistA, WorldVistA, OSEHRA, etc.]
• OSCAR
• Kitware [ITK, VTK, Paraview, etc.]
• OpenEMR
• Clear Health
• OpenMRS
• Mirth
• RPMS
• PHIN
• OpenHRE

There were many other high quality open source solutions right behind these front runners, e.g. Epi Info/Map, Open Dental, NEDSS, My Family Health Portrait, Tolven, Apelon, Medline/PubMed, Open ISES, Ushahidi, and more. See related OHN Blog.

Don’t dismiss these open source health IT solutions. These systems have been successfully deployed and are in use in thousands of sites across the country and around the world.