Open source solutions for the Philippines

THE National Telehealth Center (NTHC) has urged Filipinos to become more active members of the OpenMRS (Medical Records System) to enhance the country’s health capacity. To promote the system, the NTHC recently organized a gathering of developers and users of free and open-source software for use in health centers around the world for the sixth annual OpenMRS Implementers Meeting held at the Y.C. James Yen Center at the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR).

The NTHC said this was the first time the meeting was held outside the continent of Africa, and it presented an opportunity for the Philippines to take a leadership role in Asia as an OpenMRS implementer.

The local governments of Quezon City and Navotas, which are implementing the system, showed the programs in providing support to primary health-care centers in the Philippines through implementations of Community Health Information Tracking System (CHITS)-Open. OpenMRS implementers and developers in 21 countries from around the world attended the event...

Realizing the advantages of using OpenMRS as a framework for developing electronic medical records for primary health-care centers in the Philippines, the NTHC embarked on a large-scale implementation of its CHITS using OpenMRS starting December 2011, making it the largest implementer of OpenMRS in both the Philippines and Asia.