OpenMRS in Latin America

The OpenMRS community is working to apply health information technologies (HIT) to solve problems, primarily in resource-challenged environments.  It is  a proud, global community of developers, implementers, funders, and users all trying to make the world a better place by using their expertise to improve the health and wellness of people around the globe. See map of OpenMRS Installations.

OpenMRS is a free, open-source electronic medical record (EMR) system.  All of the core resources that make up the system are open source and freely available. OpenMRS is programmed in Java and the core application works through a web-browser. The back end database is currently in MySQL.

As of 2012, OpenMRS was in use at over 100 facilities in more than 30 countries across 6 continents and had been used to collect and store clinical information on over 2 million patients across the globe. OpenMRS is now in use around the world in Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Haiti, South Africa, Kenya, and a growing number of other countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.

Based on the information and map posted on the OpenMRS web site, the following is a summary of the OpenMRS installations and users in Latin American countries:

• Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires – Argentina
• eHealth Systems (2 sites) - Chile
• Universidad del Valle de Guatemala
• Visitation Hospital – Haiti
• Martissant Health Center – Haiti
• Partners In Health (1 site) – Haiti
• Sustainable Sciences Institute - Nicaragua
• Global Brigades (1 site) - Honduras
• Universidad de Camagüey – Cuba
• Socios En Salud Sucursal - Peru
• Hospital Hermilio Valdizan – Peru
• Centro Medico Humberto Parra – Bolivia
• Universidade Federal de Santa Maria - Brazil

* Also, unconfirmed reports of OpenMRS use in Panama and a slowly growing number of other locations across Central America, the Caribbean, and South America.

Check out the following key organizations actively involved with the implementation of OpenMRS in Latin America and around the world:

• Global Brigades - http://www.globalbrigades.org/
• Millennium Villages Project - http://www.millenniumvillages.org/
• Partners In Health - http://www.pih.org/
• Regenstrief Institute - http://www.regenstrief.org/cbmi/areas-excellence/global-health/open-source-platforms/

To learn more about the global OpenMRS community and how it is working together to build one of the world's leading open source electronic medical record (EMR) system platforms, visit the OpenMRS web site.  Also, try and plan on attending the upcoming 2013 OpenMRS Implementers Meeting in Eldoret, Kenya -  October 8-11, 2013.

* For more information, see collected news & information about OpenMRS  posted on the Open Health News (OHN) web site.