Moorfields NHS Trust Deploys Open Source Clinical Modules

Gill Hitchcock | Government Computing | September 12, 2012

ICT team at NHS trust roll out next phase of open source patient record system developed in-house. Moorfields eye hospital NHS foundation trust has said that it has added three new modules for prescribing, operations notes and correspondence to OpenEyes, its open source (OS) e-patient record system.

OpenEyes was developed by an in-house team, led by consultation surgeon and former medical director at Moorfields, Bill Aylward. He told Government Computing that the trust needed to replace its existing e-patient record system and decided to develop new software itself because of the lack of a suitable commercial system.

He also said that Moorfields was "fortunate" in being able to incorporate OS software into its ICT strategy. "The way most NHS IT departments work is that they have the resources to run the infrastructure and to negotiate with other companies, but the installation of a new piece of software means acquiring a commercial bit of software and the company come in and install it. And that same company usually maintain and support it...