Calendar sync with Google calendar

arnabnaha wrote on Saturday, October 29, 2011:

Hi…
Any ideas about syncing the Openemr Calendar with Google calendar? If it is possible/done, then we can get all our appointments directly on our mobiles/devices and it will be available readily as calendar is updated at the clinic or by the patient through the portal. It will be a great feature.

arnabnaha wrote on Saturday, October 29, 2011:

This might be of some help:

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/x-googleclndr/

mike-h30 wrote on Saturday, October 29, 2011:

OpenEMR Mobile allows you to view your OpenEMR calendar on your mobile devices.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/openemrmobile/

I prefer this over storing patient information on Google’s servers due to security reasons.  Also, Google has had outages in the past.  With OpenEMR Mobile you can still connect your mobile devices to your onsite OpenEMR installation in the event of a Google or ISP outage.

-Mike

___________
Steve Jobs
1955 - 2011

anonymous wrote on Saturday, October 29, 2011:

I would be very interested in the ability to sync our OpenEMR calendar with a program like outlook. Our practice is considering the use of an outsourced reception company for scheduling, however, I am a bit wary of allowing our system to be used by all of their employees. There doesn’t seem to be any option to allow only calendar access. Even the lowest level of permissions enables users to access any files stored in the documents tab of a patient’s chart.

arnabnaha wrote on Tuesday, November 22, 2011:

Can we sync the openemr calendar with microsoft outlook??? That will be safe…

mbrody wrote on Tuesday, November 22, 2011:

Having patient data on GOOGLE CALENDAR would be a HIPAA Security Violation.
Simply put - do not do this, we should not have this feature added to OpenEMR.

Since with Google Calendar it is possible to add / delete / change information and that would not be logged within OpenEMR it may also cause OpenEMR to lose its meaningful use certification.

If anybody wants more details I will be glad to elaborate.

Michael

bradymiller wrote on Wednesday, November 23, 2011:

Hi,
I’m not a real fan of discounting potential features with this type of reasoning. For example, if this feature existed, could simply not include any patient information in the google calendar; this would still be useful for providers to track their schedule. Also, I’m guessing google app enterprise may have a solution to ensure only certain users can see the calendar(calendars can also be view only, so would not be able to modify). My point here is that it doesn’t make sense to state a feature (especially when the details of it are not known) should not be added to OpenEMR.
-brady

yehster wrote on Wednesday, November 23, 2011:

phpMyadmin which is bundled with OpenEMR by default (which I personally believe is a horrible idea) allows you to change data without logging.
As a parallel to this thread, what aspects of the calendar do people feel are most deficient with the current implementation. 

Display in frames on a mobile device I’m guessing is is a biggie.

bradymiller wrote on Wednesday, November 23, 2011:

Hi Kevin,
The phpmyadmin topic has been brought up before and some other developers(and prominent users) also voiced your concerns. I think there is a bit of a philosophy divide here (which is healthy) on how far we should go to control the havoc a user can cause onto themselves. Having the phpmyadmin embedded is great for users that need to problem solve, update translation tables, bring in codes etc; removing it now would make it very tough for users whom don’t know how to install/setup phpmyadmin separately. On the other hand, many bad things can be done by somebody whom doesn’t know what they are doing. We do control the phpmyadmin access to only admin->database aco, so only the admin can do this.
-brady

rgietzen wrote on Friday, January 11, 2013:

As a medical provider, I was hoping for a feature just like this.
I would not need any private data sync’ed with an outside calender, but it would be great to just know the general schedule.
I imagine if the OpenEMR schedule could be sync’ed with any of the cloud calenders out there, I could also sync that calender with my smartphone and home computer.
That helps in two ways:
1.  A super quick way to look at my work week (my desk top would even give me the daily “auto notifications about my calender”)
2.  My work calender could be integrated with my personal calender, so all could be seen together in one glance!
Thanks for considering

thesatman wrote on Monday, May 13, 2013:

@Brady: as time evolves, so does technology. With the possibilities of Android apps, I am looking into making an app that allows SMS appointment registration and confirmation. Like : send msg to 555xxxxx with NAME LASTNAME to book a doctor appointment. The first available time slot will be reserved (but other options should be possible) and my device will send a SMS with confirmation.

What I can see as a big plus is to sync the appointments to OpenEMR. The app will first of all use and store the appointments in the android calender app, hopefully with an option to use the contact database. (if all works out…). There is no privacy issue. If I want to know more about the patient, I will need to log on to OpenEMR.

If there is a way to import/sync appointments, what would be the best way, and in what format?

I think SMS bookings could be a useful add-on to OpenEMR. We use it all the time here when visiting the local MD. Your 2 cents?

mdsupport wrote on Monday, May 13, 2013:

For most practices a new appointment cannot be ‘first available’ - the purpose of visit plays too critical a role. However inbound SMS can create a callback action item so staff can create appointments in orderly interactive manner.
On the other hand, sending out instant SMS confirmations / change notifications would be a nice feature - not sure if iCal items can go with SMSs.