Open Source Software Projects in Health Care Offer Significant Cost Savings, Reports Black Duck Software

WALTHAM, MA, Jun 10 (MARKET WIRE) --
Open source projects created for use in health care and medical
applications promise to significantly reduce costs and contribute
efficiencies to health care organizations, according to Black Duck
Software, the leading global provider of products and services for
accelerating software development through the managed use of open source
software.

Using a well-known cost estimation model (COCOMO) to determine the cost
to produce software, Black Duck estimates that the nearly 800 health care
open source software projects it identified represent $6 billion USD of
software development costs, and would require 31,000 staff years of
development to replicate. These projects represent a significant
potential stimulus resource available to the healthcare industry.

Projects dealing with electronic health records management, practice
management and VistA, the health care information management system
developed by the US Veterans Administration, lead in project community
activity. Projects such as PatientOS, a patient management system;
OpenEMR; an electronic medical record application, and OpenVista, an
open-source version of VistA, are among the most active health care
projects in the open source community as tracked by the Black Duck
KnowledgeBase.

A report by life science market research publisher Kalorama Information,
which valued the market for electronic medial record systems at $575
million in 2008, forecasts growth in the sector will reach $1.6 billion
in 2013. According to Bruce Carlson, publisher of Kalorama Information,
"EMRs give patients and physicians greater freedom, improve accuracy, and
should result in better outcomes as critical records are all in one
easily transportable record."

"The Obama administration, in its proposed reform of the health care
system, has earmarked billions of dollars of stimulus money to foster the
adoption of electronic medical records in Medicare and Medicaid alone(1),"
said Eran Strod, director of product marketing, Black Duck Software.
"Using open source software to meet this challenge -- and break the
'status quo' the president identified in his radio address on health care
-- represents a significant opportunity to quickly implement electronic
medical records systems at a drastically reduced cost to the country."

The top ten community-based open source health care projects dealing with
electronic medical records and practice management each ranked in the top
five percent on SourceForge, with hundreds to thousands of downloads per
month. The projects are listed in the table below.

Project Name Description

CARE2X Integrated Hospital Information System for surgery,
nursing, outpatient wards, labs, pharmacy, security,
admission, schedulers, repair, communication & more.
dcm4che Leading Java implementation of DICOM [medical.nema.org].
DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) is
a standard for handling, storing, printing, and
transmitting information in medical imaging, founded by
the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA).
There are 69 additional open source projects in the DICOM
ecosystem including pydicom, dicom-archive, EchoScu-DICOM,
and many more.
Elexis
Praxisprogramm An Eclipse RCP (Rich Client Platform) for all aspects of a
medical practice: electronic/medical record (EMR),
laboratory findings, as well as accounting, billing and
other daily work. Supports the TARMED-System.
FreeMED Electronic Medical Record and Practice Management system
for medical providers.
medical Scalable EMR (Electronic Medical Record) module for
OpenERP, aiming to provide a 100% paperless practice for a
single office or a hospital. Uses industry standards, such
WHO ICD-10.
OpenEMed Distributed healthcare and medical information framework
based on open standards including those of HL7 and the
healthcare taskforce of the OMG (Object Management Group).
These standards include identity management, observation
access, access, and terminology.
OpenEMR Open Source Electronic Medical Record, Practice
Management, Prescription Writing and Medical Billing
application. OpenEMR supports ANSI X12 EDI billing and two
clearing houses: ProxyMed and ZirMed.
PatientOS Electronic medical record (EHR or EMR and PMS) for a
physician or clinics. Designed to be expanded into a
Healthcare Information System for a hospital (Laboratory,
Pharmacy, Orders, etc...).
Tkfp TK Family Practice - Small office EMR for family
physicians, pediatricians, internists or primary care,
handling key functions including: registering the patient,
reading and writing progress notes, checking medications,
writing and transmitting prescriptions looking up
information on medical questions, making referrals, and
finally generating the bill and/or insurance claim, ready
for transmission or printing. Used in a four-doctor group
for five years. Handles HCFA1500 claim form.
Ultimate EMR Open Source Core Electronic Medical Record for small
medical providers with key functionalities: complete
patient history, past visits, Rx, health maintenance,
allergies, labs, vitals, notes, and procedures.
VistA Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology
Architecture - Enterprise grade health care information
system and Electronic Health Record developed by the
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and deployed at
nearly 1,500 facilities worldwide. Major open source
projects including: WorldVistA, WordVistA EHR, OpenVista
and VistA-Office HER.

Black Duck spiders the Internet collecting open source and other
downloadable code into a database it calls the Black Duck KnowledgeBase.
With more than 200,000 projects from 4,100 Internet sites -- and including
9,000 CodePlex projects -- the KnowledgeBase is a significant source of
information about open source projects. More than 40,000 new projects have
been added to the KnowledgeBase since January 2009.

To listen to a podcast in which Black Duck's Eran Strod discusses open
source and health care, visit
http://ducks.blackducksoftware.com/~webmedia/_Podcasts/BDS_Eran_Strod_6_10_09.mp

For more information, please visit www.blackducksoftware.com.

About Black Duck Software

Black Duck Software is the leading global provider of products and
services for accelerating software development through the managed use of
open source and third-party code. Black Duck(TM) enables companies to
shorten time-to-market and reduce development and maintenance costs while
mitigating the risks and challenges associated with open source reuse,
including hidden license obligations, security vulnerabilities,
unsupported open source and version proliferation. The company is
headquartered near Boston and has offices in San Francisco, Amsterdam,
Tokyo and Hong Kong, as well as distribution partners throughout the
world. For more information, visit www.blackducksoftware.com.

Black Duck, Know Your Code and the Black Duck logo are registered
trademarks of Black Duck Software, Inc. in the United States and other
jurisdictions. Koders is a trademark of Black Duck Software, Inc. All
other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

(1)
http://www.emrspecialists.com/2009/06/bill-pushes-doctors-computerize-records/

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