anonymous wrote on Monday, August 31, 2009:
I have a client that may be interested in sponsoring a patient portal. Has anyone started one that we can work off of?
cfapress wrote on Friday, September 11, 2009:
After two weeks without response, I’d say nobody has put any effort into a patient portal yet.
It’s been discussed on and off for years.
Jason
ideaman911 wrote on Friday, September 11, 2009:
Jason;
I am not sure what the objective, action, or pitfalls might be for a "patient portal". For some years now we have had a number of forms available on our website, which we direct patients to and request they provide copies filled out at the next visit. If that type of usage is what you envision, it would seem a major hurdle, given the variety of healthcare providers using OpenEMR. And the more external accessibility we try to add to OpenEMR, the greater the vulnerability to attack it seems to me. I like to keep "protected data" truly separated.
Can you be more specific about your intent?
Joe Holzer Idea Man
http://www.holzerent.com
zhhealthcare wrote on Friday, July 09, 2010:
Hi
I have been given the mandate to work on a patient portal by a client. I have not seen any discussion regarding this in the recent past. Would someone tell me if they have begun work on this?
If not, I would like some suggestions or comments on the features that you think should be in it.
Thanks and regards
sunsetsystems wrote on Friday, July 09, 2010:
I suspect this would best be done in the form of “plug-in” modules for a major open source content management system such as Drupal or Joomla. The existing OpenEMR framework is not designed or suited to public access, and I think trying to add it onto that would just be silly. Drupal would be my first choice based on my own experience.
zhhealthcare wrote on Saturday, July 10, 2010:
Rod
Thanks for the feedback. I was wondering what sort of features we would need in this module.
I am thinking the following:
Find and make appointments: not clear about edit options.
Add demographics, insurance, history
Legal forms approval.
View only:
Medical records reports
Patient Ledger/statements
Possibly option to make payments online
Could you think of something more?
Any feedback from any and all is appreciated
Sam
blankev wrote on Saturday, July 10, 2010:
Please take this as optional not as a must. Use my thoughts for what it is worth:
Pt to make an appointment could it be restricted to one appointment only? With option to delete own appointment.
It would help if the client could fill some additional note about reason for encounter.
Upload legal forms?
Let the client make his/her own history file to fill and or change with visibility of changes in time that needs approval of the doctor? The History form available in OpenEMR could be a good starter. Same for medications and or allergies.
Appointments of other patients should be filled as *********** so there can not be a breach of secrecy.
Pimm
sunsetsystems wrote on Saturday, July 10, 2010:
All great ideas! I’d suggest starting with something very simple, perhaps some downloadable PDF forms and a read-only calendar showing open appointment slots. Remember also the clinic is likely to want this as a basis for a general-purpose web site. Ideas will flow from there.
anonymous wrote on Saturday, July 10, 2010:
Patient portal is useful for meeting Timely Access meaningful use:
Enable a user to provide patients with online access to their clinical information, including, at a minimum, lab test results, problem list, medication list, medication allergy list, immunizations, and procedures.
It’s fairly easy to add a user registration system to OpenEMR and open up selected records to the patient. The user registration can be managed by the Administrator to avoid patient authentication issues.
As mentioned, it’s also good to include appointment scheduling and online payment via credit cards. Some integration work is needed to sync the appointment request and payment with OpenEMR records.
drbowen wrote on Wednesday, July 21, 2010:
There are several groups who are working different versions of a “Patient Portal.” I think this discussion should held in public and hopefully those who are interested can contribute to the development of this module. I wanted to start by discussing some use cases.
1)A patient “Jane Doe” is Dr. Bowen’s patient and needs Electronic Access to her ePHI. HIPAA requires that she should be able to access her information and request corrections to the information if needed. She may want a copy of this information to print out or to place on her keyring USB drive.
2)Dr. Campbell is an orthopedist. Dr. Bowen has referred Jane Doe to Dr. Campbell to have her hip replaced. Dr. Campbell needs to be able to access Jane Doe’s ePHI. He would like be able to connect to the portal and review this information. He doesn’t have the time to learn Dr. Bowen’s system and would like to download a PDF or a CCR.
The minimum functions we need:
Secure Login
Admin function - Creation and ability to administer said logins
Ability to control authorized others access in some way, expiration time or similar
Logging of logins and releases of information
Generate reports (PDFs and CCR/CCD)
Provide download of above PDF/CCR/CCD
Patient request for changes to the record
Sam Bowen, MD
http://oemr.org
arnabnaha wrote on Monday, December 06, 2010:
Hi all
It would be great if the work on patient portal starts or OPENEMR receives a patient Portal according to the ideas given by Dr. Bowen…Patients will be really benefitted as well as the work load of entering every demographics will decrease in the clinic as the patient having the access will be able to add the demographics info…they will also be able to view the medical records, the lab reports and the prescriptions…The patient can be given access to enter the initial chief complaint…all this should be done in a secure way with complete secure login and different password for each and every patient….The password and the username should be unique and must be auto generated if possible…
sunsetsystems wrote on Monday, December 06, 2010:
We need to think first in terms of the framework. Do you already have a web site that you want a portal to be added onto, or are you looking to create a site? Most web sites are built on a framework (Content Management System, or CMS), and an open source CMS written in PHP such as Drupal or Joomla would be a nice fit for OpenEMR.
I’d love to get an effort like this started if anyone is willing to sponsor it. Things tend to get done when there is something tangible to build on.
tmccormi wrote on Monday, December 06, 2010:
The IndivoX project is a solid basis for a Patient Portal to be built on, in my opinion. ZHH is looking in that and what it would take to create an OpenEMR connector for it. It’s not the only option but is is a possibility.
see: http://www.openmedsoftware.org/wiki/Patient_Electronic_Access_to_Health_Information for links to that and other possible options.
-Tony
sunsetsystems wrote on Monday, December 06, 2010:
Dunno. Indivo seems to be a PHR, not a portal, and does not use PHP. What else is there?
jane-moore wrote on Monday, December 06, 2010:
Hello, I don’t understand why you need to use external systems. Can’t you let patients access OpenEMR directly? This will save much efforts. All you need to work on is access control of the different forms and reports.
sunsetsystems wrote on Monday, December 06, 2010:
Hello, I don’t understand why you need to use external systems. Can’t you let patients access OpenEMR directly? This will save much efforts. All you need to work on is access control of the different forms and reports.
See post #6 in this thread. OpenEMR is just not a good starting point for a publicly accessible system.
tmccormi wrote on Monday, December 06, 2010:
Yes Indivo is a PHR with plugin capabilities, that would be the connector part. The code is designed to be run as a server based app. Connecting it to OpenEMR would not be hard for a Django framework / Python programmer… I’m not one of those but there are a lot of them and the portal should not be embedded in OpenEMR anyway. Like I said, just an option.
I could also port my MEDICS EHR back into a java-servlet application. It’s already integrated with OpenEMR end-to-end, just happens to be client application not a server-side application, it started it’s life on the serverside. Just needs a sponsor, as you say.
-Tony
jane-moore wrote on Monday, December 06, 2010:
Hi Rod, what changes need to happen in OpenEMR in order to allow patient access?
sunsetsystems wrote on Monday, December 06, 2010:
Hi Rod, what changes need to happen in OpenEMR in order to allow patient access?
Well you could change nothing and just give them a login. 
Yes I’m kidding. Think about all the things that are wrong with that, and you will start to get an idea. Aside from the fact that the security model is not good enough, consider that there is almost nothing in common between the UI needs for patients vs. clinic users. In my opinion it will be less work, not more, to start with a framework that is designed for public access.