Global Health and health Informatics: Serving the

underservedPaul Biondich, MD MS

Regenstrief Institute & OpenMRS

Why Global Health?Global Health: health of populations in global context... transcends the perspectives and concerns of individual countries

Most interested in worldwide health improvement through reduction of disparities

These two primary motivations push global health practitioners towards:

the poor and underserved on a global scale

health problems that cut across national borders

collaboration (as global problems need global solutions)

Global Health InformaticsResource poor healthcare settings:

higher volumes

higher acuity of illness

poor care facilities (infrastructure, workflows, etc)

Amplifies caregiver’s inherent limitations as data processors

Simple HIT tools arguably have greater opportunity to

improve healthcare quality

facilitate task shifting down to the less trained

Pressure on a system encourages disruptive innovations

Massive shortage of critical thinkers in this space

The Community

Mission Statement

``The mission of OpenMRS is to improve health care delivery in resource-constrained environments by coordinating a global community that creates a robust, scalable, user-driven open-source medical record system platform.``

6Regenstrief Institute, Inc.

OpenMRS - API

•Three code layers

•Database Layer

•Service Layer

•Presentation Layer

•Hibernate, Spring, AJAX

Thanks!

values

User-Centered:

Design decisions are driven by real, not perceived needs

Our software works in the most challenging health care delivery environments

We create a platform that is adaptable to the unique needs of our users around the world

VALUES

Open

We are open, honest and transparent in both our processes and software

Our software serves as a platform that empowers users and implementers to innovate

We publicly document and actively share our knowledge, skills, experiences, and failures

VALUES

Community-Driven

We believe the best ideas come from people with different backgrounds and talents, and we create a community where these people can come together and create

We believe in harnessing the wisdom of our software development community by creating a safe place to raise concerns, discuss failures, improve existing ideas and solve problems.

Medical Record Keeping

in Eldoret circa 2004

Patients in AMRS0 56250 112500 168750 225000

2006

2007

2008

2009

1/2 2010

Per Year Cumulative

208,360 as of 5/18/10

encounters in AMRS0 625000 1250000 1875000 2500000

2006

2007

2008

2009

1/2 2010

Per Year Cumulative

2,187,368 as of 5/18/10

Observations in AMRS0 17500000 35000000 52500000 70000000

2006

2007

2008

2009

1/2 2010

Per Year Cumulative

~66.6 million as of

5/18/10

10 1649

95

189

258

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Total Developer`s List Active Subscribers (by Year)

96: number offaculty / staff

in RG Informatics

0

4581

137

218

273

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Total Implementer`s List Active Subscribers (by Year)

OpenMRS Mailing List Posts: 10,346

OpenMRS Wiki (as of 5/18/2010):

Total # of accounts: 2,021Total # of Wiki Pages: 3,576Total # of Page Edits: 17,260Total # of Page Views: 3,215,466

OpenMRS Web Forum: 549 users

Total Forum Posts: 1,947

Other Community Statistics

Recent ActivityGrowing the organization

More discrete roles and responsibilities

Growing leadership, structure

Complete overhaul of online presence

Formation of 501(c)3

Improving the API

Performance release forthcoming

Web services

Overhaul of User Interface Layer

Continuing to Improve Communication Techniques