I am currently trying to review some of the free EMR products out there. I’m trying to make a recommendation for a rural clinic in a developing country. The clinic has electricity but may not always have steady access to the web, so I am steering away from anything that requires a connection. My question is this: is it possible for OpenEMR (or other free EMRs) to run without a connection to the internet and store information on a local hard drive (and perhaps intermittently upload information to a server for back-up purposes)? I am a clinician, not a developer / computer person, so any guidance would be appreciated!
What do you want to have? Free like not paying? Than you are in the right place. Only have to think about what next. Linux version or MS-Windows.
Start reading the Home page, followed by the OpenEMR version of you choice. If you have an opportunity, do some exercises on the OpenEMR Demos versions. Some have daily resetting others weekly resetting. Starting with a development version which have the most options can only be advised if the Dev version is stable for a few weeks and you install the OpenEMR on an in-house computer. Also networking on different spots in-house should not give much problems for a doctor interested in EMR keeping.
If you need more info, please feel free to ask, there are many more doctors that can give good advise for any kind of Medical Clinic (and did the installation themselves). There are many hidden extra’s available that could be installed after the initial OpenEMR version is working as stipulated and the install is accepted, by the various professionals.
Hi Pieter, thank you for the quick reply. I have heard many good things about OpenEMR so that is why I am interested. It doesn’t seem like the link to the demo is working at the moment (http://demo.open-emr.org:2107/openemr/). I downloaded the most recent version but I have no idea how to install it. I have unzipped the file and now have a folder (“xampp”) but I’m not sure what to do next.
The clinic in question has very modest needs. It provides pretty basic services right now, but it sees a very large volume of patients so it is getting really out of hand to keep track of the amount of paper that they do. I also want to leave room for expansion in the future.
The internet is needed for billing and getting support and updates. Unless you use a system configured for a non local server (most are local), over the internet constant internet access is not required.
The clinic will be very pleased with OpenEMR because it is fully featured and readily adaptable (even for us non-geeks). For 99% of the time the application can be used offline. Best of all, it’s open source.
If staff speaks another language, the application is probably available in their native tongue.
Follow the instructions here regarding xampp-control, timezone and securing OpenEMR.
If you are able to login, proceed to understanding the User Guide. The Wiki is your friend.
With the exception of the Weekly Demo, all other Demo’s reset each day to their pristine state. If you happen to browse to a Demo at reset, it will not be available.
If it is a single clinic, OpenEMR will be great. Every application (including this one) will have problems if you have requirement to share data across multiple locations without using a central server.
Hi Chris its great to have people like you. I think providing a local installation & syncing it with a backup remote server(when internet is available) would be best. That way your data is secure and you don’t have to worry about internet, though your security is compromised.
What I mean is that when you are storing data on a local drive, it is not as secure as it would be when you save it on secure server.
Syncing the data can be achieved by creating frequent backups in a secure location.
Synchronizing for me is different from back up. This I suppose, is shared by many.
What I mean by synchronizing is that the available OpenEMR version(s) on any machine AND the Internet have the same amount of information included. Not something of a week ago. Input that took place and was made as input in one available OpenEMR, should be available ASAP on another machine when Internet is back. This should be committed to other(plural) OpenEMR versions (SYNCHRONIZED) as soon as the Internet comes back.