Best way to find someone for one-on-one OpenEMR training/mentoring?

Management and Administration
1

Hi everyone and thanks for accepting me into the community!

I’m a US physician (general outpatient medicine and psych) trying to learn OpenEMR in a fairly serious way, and I was hoping to get some advice from people here about the best way to go about it.

I know there are already a lot of resources available — the wiki, YouTube videos, documentation, old forum discussions, etc. — and I’ve started looking through some of them. What I think would work much better for my brain and time constraints would be to spend some time one-on-one with somebody who knows OpenEMR well and can walk me through it interactively over Zoom/Teams/Google Meet screen sharing.

So my main question is: where would you look for someone like this? Is this something I should post about here, look for on Upwork or another freelance site, contact one of the OpenEMR consultants/vendors, or approach someone active in the community directly?
What I have in mind is a little more than ordinary end-user training. I’d like to start from the beginning—installation, hosting, configuration, administration, and normal physician workflow—but eventually go much deeper into how OpenEMR actually works underneath the hood and what it is capable of. For reference, I’ve had a single introductory Java programming-for-engineers course in college 20+ years ago, but that’s it for experience.

In addiction to learning how to practically use the EMR, I’d love to understand the database and architecture better, modules, how customizations are normally done, what requires programming versus configuration, how integrations are built, and maybe some of the developmental history of OpenEMR. I could even imagine spending part of a teaching session going through interesting discussions on this forum and having someone explain the technical context behind what people are talking about.

Ideally the person would be someone who knows OpenEMR very well, enjoys teaching and is enthusiastic about the platform, and is good at explaining technical or programming concepts to someone who is interested but isn’t a software developer. Experience actually developing or customizing OpenEMR would be a big plus.

I’m also very interested in AI — LLMs, agents, automation, voice systems, etc. — and current OpenEMR integration/systems in place today, what may eventually be possible. Someone who understands that side of things too would be fantastic.

That said, I realize I may be describing several different people rather than one unicorn. If somebody is simply an excellent OpenEMR teacher and doesn’t know much about AI, that would still be very useful. Likewise, somebody who is especially strong on the development/technical side could be helpful even if teaching isn’t their main job.

I’d be happy to pay someone hourly for this — maybe starting with a 1.5–2 hour session and, if it’s productive, potentially doing 10–15 hours or more over time?

Longer term I may also need help customizing OpenEMR for my own practice, so there could potentially be additional work beyond the teaching.

I’d really appreciate any suggestions on where or how you would look for the right person.

And, of course, if anyone here actually enjoys doing this kind of teaching/mentoring themselves, please feel free to message as well :slight_smile:

2

Hi and welcome to the OpenEMR community @CuriousMD .

You can reach out to msove@omegasystemsgroup.com he has a solid team to assist you in these areas specified. Do let him know you were referred from the community.

I hope you enjoy the EMR and the community

3

Hi @CuriousMD ,
Welcome to the community.

I am a physician as well. I was able to learn openemr by using it. I used Ai. But I think using a vendor is the most effective and quickest way to learn and customize openemr . You may ask questions but answer may not come quick.

This will not get you any where.

Most of the active people in this forum are action working for a vendor. You may use that to filter the list of vendor above. Good luck

4

Hi @curiousMD,

I have total 13+ year of experience into Healthcare Software development and 8+ years I have worked on the OpenEMR development and customization. Also have write API into OpenEMR to access OpenEMR data from React JS UI. Also I have integrated my third party tools and used the external API as well into OpenEMR. Below some of list of features I have worked with OpenEMR

  1. Form Customization into OpenEMR
  2. API development into OpenEMR
  3. Developed provider specific patient feature
  4. Complete UI customization with in OpenEMR
  5. Developed UI using react js, redux and Material ui and used OpenEMR API to access data on UI
  6. Billing Automation - Sending claim to clearing house and import ERA into OpenEMR
  7. Dynamic report functionality into OpenEMR
  8. Developed Mirth connect pipeline for DFT HL7 message
  9. Below are the some list of external API integration into OpenEMR -
    a. Panddoc integration for esign functionality
    b. Availity eligibility check API
    c. Availity claim status API
    d. Calling Vital data from mobile app api
    e. Working on the quest API
  10. Below are the third party tool we have integrated into OpenEMR -
    a. Weno integration into OpenEMR - For sending prescription to pharmacy
    b) Comlink integration into OpenEMR - For telehealth call
  11. Worked on FHIR Rest API for different OpenEMR.
  12. Finished OpenEMR/EHR to eCW integration using FHIR/HL7 message
  13. Also integrated Pharmacy module integration into OpenEMR.
  14. Also develop the drug module into OpenEMR.
  15. Developed the Dermatology application for sale tracking of products.
  16. Finished OpenEMR/EHR to Dr Chrono integration using FHIR/HL7 message

This is very small list I have worked lot of feature and some feature even I did not remember. If get the chance to work on your project I will be happy to work on your project. Also I have develop the Mobile App for the Patient portal into React Native

Thanks,
Nilesh

5

Thanks Kofi, I really appreciate the specific referral. I took a look at Omega and it definitely seems like they do both training and development, which is what I think I want. I’ll reach out to Mario and mention that you referred me from the community. Thanks again!

6

15 hours might barely cover basic installation from scratch, using docker, command line basics, installing and using openemrcmd, and basic use. But your list is much longer than that. Even 80 hours won’t cover your entire list, plus for some of the advanced stuff you would need to learn a little more on your own.

Whomever you hire, make sure they use the docker environment, and show you some command line basics for managing it.

good luck, keep your enthusiasm, don’t expect it to be easy, and remember the best things in life don’t always come easily!

Please give us updates on how things are going and how your experience is, whether it be positive or negative. I like to hear feedback to improve things for future venturers.

7

Thanks Moussa — especially helpful to hear this from another physician. I would be really curious to hear how you use OpenEMR in your practice (what type of practice?!) and whether you are happy with going down this road, and whether there are any shortcomings. But perhaps that’s a different discussion :wink:

And just to clarify, the ~2 hours would only be an initial session to see if the person and teaching style are a good fit. I was thinking a significant more time overall particularly as I get deeper into it.

I was also really interested in your comment that you learned OpenEMR partly by using AI. I saw some of your other posts where you mentioned using AI to make changes even though you’re not a programmer. How far have you been able to take that? Have you learned enough about the underlying OpenEMR structure along the way to understand/check what the AI is changing, or do you still rely on someone more technical for that?

And if there are one or two particular people/vendors from that support list who you think are especially good teachers, I’d be very interested in your opinion!

8

I am very happy with openemr. I did have some IT interests and that helped some with installation

openemr is now build to my interest. I am able to bill and check claim status right from openemr. Plus some other things that I needed, all Ai coded.

No, I have no clue what the Ai does this is why I lock my openemr to my office IP only. I am afraid that Ai my expose things that are not supposed to be open.

9

Thanks Nilesh — your background sounds very relevant to what I’m looking for!

I also saw some of your other posts about the AI work you’ve done with OpenEMR, including using an actual physician-patient conversation to generate the note, prescription information and coding. That’s especially interesting to me.

The one thing I’d emphasize is that initially I’m looking for a teacher/mentor as much as a developer. I’d like to start from the ground up, but also have someone who can explain what’s happening under the hood as we go — database, APIs, modules, architecture, why things are designed a certain way, etc.

If that kind of one-on-one teaching is something you enjoy doing, I’d definitely be interested in trying a paid 1.5–2 hour screen-sharing session and seeing how we work together. Feel free to PM me with your rate and availability.

10

Ok @CuriousMD I will send you PM definitely with my details.

11

Welcome to the community, check out ovforms.com it’s an Ai-powered tool for OpenEMR that you could use it to create any complex encounter form without coding in seconds, and auto-code from chief complain.