Interesting discussion on partnerships and business models from the
OpenMRS list.
···
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Thomas <pihdave@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 2:15 PM
Subject: Re: [OPENMRS-IMPLEMENTERS] partner openmrs
To: openmrs-implement-l@listserv.iupui.edu
Are there lessons to be learned from VistA?
d
On 12/6/2010 3:05 PM, Hamish Fraser wrote:
This a very important conversation. We in the OpenMRS community are pioneers
in the open source health care software field and therefore having to work
out some of these issues. This question comes up a lot and needs to be
looked at in the context of each project.One important consideration is that medical record software usually needs a
lot of configuration and customization for each hospital or health system.
This is often the largest cost of EMR contracts in big US hospitals. So
taking OpenMRS and customizing it to a health system in a new country will
usually require a fair amount of paid or voluntary programming. That is
certainly our experience at PIH. A proprietary software company will build
into their fee:
1) the basic license cost
2) the customization costs
3) the set up costs (maybe including hardware, networking etc.)
4) the staff training costs (users, data management, maybe IT support)
5) some ongoing support costs
6) their profitWe end up breaking all these out which can be good in principle for
developing countries but is often more complicated.So I have been asked to set up OpenMRS-TB in some new countries (OpenMRS-TB
is a distribution of OpenMRS that we customized at PIH to support drug
resistant and standard TB management). We got a grant to do the initial
customization of OpenMRS (new concepts, modules for displays, forms,
reports) and could request payment from a country, which would likely come
from their funder like the Global Fund, to set up the system.For sites where we have OpenMRS development and implementation partners such
as Rwanda then this process is fairly easy to map out. For some new
countries in Asia that don't have OpenMRS experience it is more tricky.So back to the original question of who supports core development. Sometimes
as with OpenMRS-TB we can fundraise for that work as it is considered a
public good. The ongoing customization and bug fixing by implementation
partners is also a valuable part of the work as long as it is shared with
the community. Perhaps we will evolve to where the support costs going
forward include the services of a local IT company and some small percentage
pays for expert core OpenMRS programming support. I would be interested in
thoughts about this, it is hard to setup in a practical way.Overall I think it is important to look at total cost of ownership of the
software, and budget for items 2-5 above, and in the case of a private
company for 6 also but based on the work done in the country rather than the
software code. While you can't charge for the software exclusively (anyone
can download it) there are situations where you might build software that
uses OpenMRS as the platform but has one or more proprietary modules and
charge for the combination. I am not really in favor of that approach
because it reduces the size of the open community.Once you budget for all this then you have a valid comparison for the MOH or
a hospital between an OpenMRS implementation and a proprietary system. It is
important to highlight the possible "sting in the tail" of proprietary
system that charge rising license fees each year or charge large fees for
future fixes.
RegardsHamish
-----Original Message-----
From: implementers@openmrs.org [mailto:implementers@openmrs.org] On Behalf
Of Prof. Kayode Odusote
Sent: Monday, December 06, 2010 6:28 AM
To: openmrs-implement-l@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
Subject: Re: [OPENMRS-IMPLEMENTERS] partner openmrsI agree it is a good question but what has not been clearly stated by Julius
is what wants to charge fees for? If he is wants to charge fees for the
codes, then it is totally wrong and not in the spirit of Open Source
Software. If he wants to charge fees for consultancy support for
implementation, staff training, etc then I think he is entitled to that.
Since if he did not provide that service then the institution would need to
employ people to do it.Open Source Software is not totally free - it costs money to implement and
support the institution and someone needs to pay for that. However, the
principle to my mind is that the code is freely available for all to share
and contribute to its development under an agreed licence.Kayode
-----Original Message-----
From: implementers@openmrs.org [mailto:implementers@openmrs.org] On Behalf
Of Julius Awakame
Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2010 11:32 PM
To: openmrs-implement-l@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
Subject: Re: [OPENMRS-IMPLEMENTERS] partner openmrsCan I help here while we are on this topic. If for example I have an OpenMRS
system I am sharing between several practices for a fee. I will still need
to be supported by the wider developer/implementer community. What will be
the arrangement by which I will put something back into openMRS. If I am
running a training program for implementers or end users and then ask them
to request help from the community when they are stuck. How are we going to
fund the expansion of developers/implementers who will support the
increasingly growing ecosystem?*******************
Julius Awakame MD, MSc
PhD Research Student,
Yorkshire Centre for Health Informatics,
University of Leeds,
Leeds,
United Kingdom
www.ychi.leeds.ac.ukGhana's Representative On The Steering Committee
African Academic Public Health Informatics Alliance
Centre for Public Health Informatics
University of Washington
Seattle, WAFellow,
Health Informatics Building Blocks Project (HIBBs),
AMIA/Global Health Informatics Partnership
________________________________________
From: implementers@OPENMRS.ORG [implementers@OPENMRS.ORG] On Behalf Of Burke
Mamlin [bmamlin@REGENSTRIEF.ORG]
Sent: 05 December 2010 15:59
To: openmrs-implement-l@LISTSERV.IUPUI.EDU
Subject: Re: [OPENMRS-IMPLEMENTERS] partner openmrsMohamed,
Can you be more specific? The software and community are open to anyone.
Are you looking for certification? "OpenMRS Partner" is not explicitly
defined, so it is hard to know exactly what you are looking for from your
question.-Burke
On Dec 5, 2010, at 9:45 AM, mohamed shedid > <moh.shedid@GMAIL.COM<mailto:moh.shedid@GMAIL.COM>> wrote:
dear all
what the procedure to become openmrs partner???--
Thanks
Mohamed shedid________________________________
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--
Cheers,
Knut Staring