# Making patient portal even more useful **URL:** \ **Category:** Day-to-Day Users\ **Created:** [November 13, 2011, 2:02am UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/making-patient-portal-even-more-useful/2818 "2011-11-13T02:02:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 2:02am UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/making-patient-portal-even-more-useful/2818/1 "2011-11-13T02:02:57Z")
**[rpl121](https://sourceforge.net/u/rpl121/)** wrote on [Sunday, November 13, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202504/thread/0b3a5365/#6d82): Seems to me it would be possible to expand the functionality of the existing patient portal to allow access to documents (letters, reports, faxes, etc) in any given patient’s directory file.  Because some of the documents may be sensitive or even erroneous (i.e. the wrong patient!), I think it would be best to find a way to put documents (or links or copies or what not) into a special location after purposefully choosing to do so to make them accessible.  One would need some sort of link on the patient portal page, but that does not seem prohibitive. Ron Leemhuis ---
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 4:30am UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/making-patient-portal-even-more-useful/2818/2 "2011-11-13T04:30:54Z")
**[cverk](https://sourceforge.net/u/cverk/)** wrote on [Sunday, November 13, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202504/thread/0b3a5365/#2e3b): I agree with bringing back up the portal discussion. It seems that the overall direction is towards cloud computing, accessable from anywhere there is an internet connection. So perhaps the direction should be away from all the various installment versions and all the problems of various versions and configurations, and towards an install version configured for easy install into a cloud web server. You could then leverage all of the infrastructure of amazon or godaddy or similar,  to provide an inexpensive package for all the small offices, non-profits, and remote care centers that could use such a solution. In that setting, the more you could leverage the portal to do, the better. Including perhaps a connection to something like microsofts healthvault.It seems to be so much more straightforward to supply a secure connection that way, and clinics could be run with pretty inexpensive hardware. It seems you could run almost any sized office off a godaddy web server with client side certificate and a fixed IP address allowing a secured onsite portal and automatic backup for about $10/month. That configuration would also make bidirectional lab connections more secure as well. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 11:38am UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/making-patient-portal-even-more-useful/2818/3 "2011-11-13T11:38:54Z")
**[blankev](https://sourceforge.net/u/blankev/)** wrote on [Sunday, November 13, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202504/thread/0b3a5365/#cda4): I support this motion, great idea. If it works for [Daddy.com](http://Daddy.com), it would work for most well equiped sites. Only additio I can think of is for parts of the world where a working copy of the Database with constant synchronisation can be used where reliabilty of Internet is not all the time available. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 7:57pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/making-patient-portal-even-more-useful/2818/4 "2011-11-13T19:57:44Z")
**[verbus](https://sourceforge.net/u/verbus/)** wrote on [Sunday, November 13, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202504/thread/0b3a5365/#2f86): All, We offer FREE hosting of OpenEMR 4.1 in our California data center. Email me offline for details. Verbus - Regards, Verbus Counts EMR Technical Solutions, LLC [http://www.emrtsolutions.com](http://www.emrtsolutions.com) 405-326-7440 ---
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 7:58pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/making-patient-portal-even-more-useful/2818/5 "2011-11-13T19:58:56Z")
**[verbus](https://sourceforge.net/u/verbus/)** wrote on [Sunday, November 13, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202504/thread/0b3a5365/#e4ff): All, I can be reached via email here -\> [verbus@gmail.com](mailto:verbus@gmail.com) Verbus ---
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2011, 10:20pm UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/making-patient-portal-even-more-useful/2818/6 "2011-11-13T22:20:17Z")
**[cverk](https://sourceforge.net/u/cverk/)** wrote on [Sunday, November 13, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202504/thread/0b3a5365/#1092): I was wondering if the appliance could be configured for something like this [https://hub.turnkeylinux.org/](https://hub.turnkeylinux.org/) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2011, 10:14am UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/making-patient-portal-even-more-useful/2818/7 "2011-11-14T10:14:31Z")
**[bradymiller](https://sourceforge.net/u/bradymiller/)** wrote on [Monday, November 14, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202504/thread/0b3a5365/#2cdf): Hi, Looks like to convert the appliance to EC2, need to do following: -Make the kernel compatible with EC2 (note the OS if unbuntu 8.04 LTS): [http://groups.google.com/group/ec2ubuntu/browse\_thread/thread/f564626478aa117](http://groups.google.com/group/ec2ubuntu/browse_thread/thread/f564626478aa117) (so, command ‘apt-get update && apt-get distupgrade && reboot’ may work; suggest doing this on a backup first) -Convert it to an EC2: [http://www.ioncannon.net/system-administration/1246/converting-from-virtualbox-or-vmware-to-ec2-now-easier-than-ever/](http://www.ioncannon.net/system-administration/1246/converting-from-virtualbox-or-vmware-to-ec2-now-easier-than-ever/) If get this to work, then should document how on the wiki (perhaps create a Cloud section). -brady > **[OpenEMR](https://www.open-emr.org)** > > The world's leading open-source electronic medical record and practice management software. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2011, 10:25am UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/making-patient-portal-even-more-useful/2818/8 "2011-11-14T10:25:31Z")
**[bradymiller](https://sourceforge.net/u/bradymiller/)** wrote on [Monday, November 14, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202504/thread/0b3a5365/#9a0f): This turn key looks very cool since it’s very minimal and based on ubuntu 10.04: [http://www.turnkeylinux.org/core](http://www.turnkeylinux.org/core) Thus should be able to set it up by simply installing the ubuntu package: [http://www.open-emr.org/wiki/index.php/OpenEMR\_Downloads#Ubuntu.2Fdebian](http://www.open-emr.org/wiki/index.php/OpenEMR_Downloads#Ubuntu.2Fdebian) -brady > **[OpenEMR](https://www.open-emr.org)** > > The world's leading open-source electronic medical record and practice management software. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2011, 4:47am UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/making-patient-portal-even-more-useful/2818/9 "2011-11-15T04:47:13Z")
**[cverk](https://sourceforge.net/u/cverk/)** wrote on [Tuesday, November 15, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202504/thread/0b3a5365/#8472): I am a bit low on the learning linux curve, but your suggestion looks nearly revolutionary.  Would this not make a secured server on a dynamic IP address from which you could run the onsite patient portal, mirror encrypted backup to the cloud, allowing migration to the cloud for offsite use as desired. This would seem to meet the demands of other countries with intermittent internet access. I am a little unsure how you would migrate your current data to the new appliance, but it may be simply copying over your document files and importing a mysql dump file. I am also unsure about where the previous discussion of certificates would fit in, if needed, but there does seem to be a mechanism for ongoing security updates. It also seems that Amazon or other cloud providers may be willing to share a percentage of hosting fees to developers bringing them accounts in this manner. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://discourse-uploads-openemr.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/b/bb9e4e8ae2ea7faac2e952fd9e38a3ce03aac403.png) [@system](https://community.open-emr.org/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 5:24am UTC](https://community.open-emr.org/t/making-patient-portal-even-more-useful/2818/10 "2011-11-17T05:24:05Z")
**[cverk](https://sourceforge.net/u/cverk/)** wrote on [Thursday, November 17, 2011](https://sourceforge.net/p/openemr/discussion/202504/thread/0b3a5365/#692f): I did get Brady’s suggestion to run. I installed virtualbox under windows, then installed the turnkey linux core by importing the OVF form under import appliance.  I then installed the ubuntu form of openemr by command line.  I had to use the debian commands from the instructions to make it work.  I was then able to run openemr from internet explorer under windows on the same machine using the IP address shown on the turnkey linux configuration console. (xxx.xxx.x.xxx/openemr). Looks promising.  That is all the farther I got so far.