[Trainer-talk] Accessible Scheduling Solutions

[Blaine Clark]

Hello Terrence,

My wife works as a medical secretary in the Radiology department of a 
hospital, and they are in the headache phase of implementing the Cerner 
medical office package to replace their old computer system. It is 
definitely not free, and you can look it over here; http://www.cerner.com/.

I'm not sure what all you're looking for. Here are several open source 
programs to examine. They are Linux based. I haven't checked to see if 
they are all Windows compatible, at least one of them is. The good news 
regarding them is that they are free and at least one of them also has 
free developer support. The others have user forum support. As for 
accessibility, I don't have a clue. You might be able to find that out 
on the individual user forums. And you should be able to discuss 
experiences with current users.

In no particular order;

Linux package #1
http://www.oemr.org/
OpenEMR Home Page
OpenEMR is a free medical practice management, electronic medical 
records, prescription writing, and medical billing application. These 
programs are also referred to as electronic health records. OpenEMR is 
licensed under the General Gnu Public License (General GPL). It is a 
free open source replacement for medical applications such as Medical 
Manager, Health Pro, and Misys. It features support for EDI billing to 
clearing houses such as Availity, MD-Online, MedAvant and ZirMED using 
ANSI X12.
Major features of OpenEMR
* Free (Free Libre Open Source Software)
* Open Source
* Multilanguage Support
* Free Upgrades
* Free online support
* Electronic Billing (includes Medicare)
* Document management
* Integrated practice management
* E-Prescribing
* Insurance tracking (3 insurances)
* Easy to customize
* Easy Installation (Thank You! Brady Miller and Obinna Amalu.)
* Voice recognition ready (MS Windows Operating Systems)
* Web based (Secure access with SSL certificates)
* Integration with external general accounting program SQL-Ledger
* Built in Scheduler
* Multi-facility capable
* Prescriptions by printed script, fax or email


Linux package #2
http://wiki.gnumed.de/bin/view/Gnumed
medical practice management - Client
This is the GNUmed Electronic Medical Record. Its purpose is to enable 
doctors to keep a medically sound record on their patients' health. 
Currently it is not fully featured. The features provided are, however, 
tested, in use, and considered stable. This package does NOT yet provide 
functionality for billing and stock keeping. While the GNUmed team has 
taken the utmost care to make sure the medical records are safe at all 
times you still need to make sure you are taking appropriate steps to 
backup the medical data to a safe place at appropriate intervals. Do 
test your backup and disaster recovery procedures, too! Protect your 
data! GNUmed itself comes without any warranty whatsoever. You have been 
warned.
This package contains the wxpython client.


Linux package #3
http://pim.kde.org/
KDE personal organizer
This package contains KOrganizer, a calendar and scheduling program. 
KOrganizer aims to be a complete program for organizing appointments, 
contacts, projects, etc. KOrganizer natively supports information 
interchange with other calendar applications, through the industry 
standard vCalendar personal data interchange file format. This eases the 
move from other modern PIMs to KOrganizer. This package is part of KDE, 
and a component of the KDE PIM module. See the 'kde' and 'kdepim' 
packages for more information.


Linux package #4
http://www.openbravo.com/
Enterprise Resource Planning solution
Openbravo is "Everyone's ERP"--a comprehensive, ready to use, web-based 
open source business management solution that automates all of the core 
business processes for small and medium-sized companies, ranging from 
accounting and financial management, to sales, purchasing, inventory 
management and more.
Written in Java and offering a choice between Oracle and PostgreSQL as 
database, Openbravo is model-driven, allowing easy extension and 
configuration of the system. The simple, powerful, and consistent 
browser screens do not require any client software installation, are 
intuitive for users to learn, and designed for efficient daily use. The 
comprehensive web service coverage enables easy integration with other 
applications.
Openbravo ERP is the foundation of a global ecosystem that is changing 
the way ERP solutions are developed, marketed, and consumed. Its modular 
architecture enables easy creation and deployment of native third party 
extensions, and Openbravo ERP users can complement the core 
functionality, choosing from an ever increasing portfolio of modules 
providing localization capabilities, additional functions and vertical 
specialization. The Openbravo ERP ecosystem provides packaged solutions 
to support all the core business processes shared by most companies, 
enabling Openbravo users to quickly realize the benefits of implementing 
an ERP and allowing them to focus their implementation efforts on the 
processes that provide a true competitive advantage.
Openbravo Community Edition on Ubuntu is a free and fully functional 
ERP, ready for production usage. Organizations wishing to maximize the 
benefits of their ERP system can also easily activate a Professional 
Edition subscription and enjoy: Full support for both the application 
and technology stack Premium functionality Access to a broader portfolio 
of extensions, including commercial modules and solutions. Get started 
now, and become part of Openbravo's global vision of "Opening ERP's Future".


Linux package #5
http://www.tryton.org/en/
Tryton is a three-tiers high-level general purpose application platform 
under the license GPL-3 written in Python and using PostgreSQL as 
database engine.
It is the core base of a complete business solution providing 
modularity, scalability and security.
The core of Tryton (also called Tryton kernel) provides all the 
necessary functionalities for a complete application framework: data 
persistence, extensive modularity, users management (authentication, 
fine grained control for data access, handling of concurrent access of 
resources), workflow and report engines, web services and 
internationalisation. Thus constituting a complete application platform 
which can be used for any relevant purpose.
Currently, the main modules available for Tryton cover the following 
fields of activity:
     * Accounting
     * Invoicing
     * Sale Management
     * Purchase Management
     * Analytic Accounting
     * Inventory Management


Linux package #6
http://userbase.kde.org/Kontact
Kontact suite unites mature and proven KDE PIM applications under one 
roof. Thanks to the powerful KPart 
<http://userbase.kde.org/Glossary#KPart> technology, existing 
applications are seamlessly integrated into one.
The components of KDE Kontact are tailored to work well with each other. 
This results in features like intuitive drag-and-drop between 
appointment handling, task lists and contacts. KDE Kontact supports 
various groupware servers. When using these servers your workgroup has 
access to features like shared email folders, group task lists, calendar 
sharing, central addressbooks and meeting scheduling.
In short: KDE Kontact delivers innovations to help you manage your 
communications more easily, organize your work faster and work together 
more closely, resulting in more productivity and efficiency in digital 
collaboration.


 From very complex business solutions to simple Personal Information 
Managers that can easily be used for small office work, you should be 
able to find something that's accessible and will fulfill your needs and 
not break the bank.


For normal office work, there's OpenOffice http://why.openoffice.org/ 
which is comparable and compatible with Microsoft's Office program.


Linux also has open source programs for POS (Point Of Sales) which I 
think can incorporate credit card readers. There are also bar code 
creation and printing programs for labeling and inventory use. Note that 
with bar code readers, the blind can use some of these labels for full 
identification in the home informing them of dosage, name of meds, 
special directions, etc. They can also use their own computer and a 
printer with a bar code generator to label their canned goods (Split Pea 
soup, expire 12-12), microwave buttons, you name it. Again, most of 
these programs are free.

The Ubuntu (http://www.ubuntu.com/) build of Linux 
(http://www.linux.com/) is nearly the closest of the free Linux 
operating systems to the familiar Windows operating system of the 
various builds of Linux. It has a friendly GUI (graphical user 
interface), can easily auto-install most Open Source programs that are 
compatible to Linux and can be run from the command line for the blind 
user with screen reader assist which is usually Orca, 
http://live.gnome.org/Orca. There is a Vinux (Visual Linux) build that 
has just become stable and is geared toward use by the visually impaired 
and is loosely based on the Ubuntu build. It is here 
http://vinux.org.uk/. If you need some help getting an open source 
screen reader to function with an open source program on a Linux system, 
these great people should be able to help you out with advice.

If you're on a tight budget, or just don't want to spend too much before 
making up your mind, or just frugal and looking for inexpensive, look 
into the Linux resources. Even if the only free help available is the 
user forums, there is someone who's been where you are when you need to 
ask questions and they will help you, and when you learn enough, you in 
turn can help someone else on the forums.

Computers can be dual-booted such as I have done with my wife's 
computer. She started with Windows Vista and I installed Kubuntu (a 
variation of Ubuntu http://www.kubuntu.org/) along-side so that on 
boot-up she has a choice between Windows and Kubuntu. Kubuntu is 
slightly more accessible friendly even than Ubuntu, but, from what I 
understand, not as much as Vinux.

Some general open source resources;
http://opensource.com/
http://sourceforge.net/

You can also choose to run just as I have done on my own computer and 
remove Windows and run just Ubuntu or another flavor of Linux. But if 
you want the best of both worlds and to keep your options open for any 
software use in the future, dual boot may be your best choice. You can 
also look over Mac resources. I can't help you there. I've never 
operated on a Mac. Note that many of these opensource programs will 
operate on Windows and Linux.

If you may have several computers in your office, you will probably want 
to look into networking them, especially to any peripherals such as 
printers, scanners, faxes, etc. Both Windows and Linux are very network 
capable. Much more of the WWW is built on the Linux system than on the 
Windows system!

Best of luck.
Blaine Clark