[brady_m]

Yep, marketing is a real issue, since that can take up extensive resources (I am just guessing that the proprietary EMRs sink 20% or more of their resources into marketing).

Especially since US based physicians are trained that more money means better things. As you can imagine the skepticism that then results when discussing a free EMR.

Prior to a year or so ago, OpenEMR really relied on the professional support (this is basically an organic ecosystem of companies, vendors, and professionals that offer paid services to support OpenEMR) for marketing. However, the project is now taking on a more active role in marketing and is why it is listed as an item to fund in the OpenEMR Collective blog. The goal would be to get professional marketing advice and guidance.

The developing nations market is really another matter. The marketing is still important and requires resources, but is mainly focused on making OpenEMR known and accessible to these nations (for example, OpenEMR currently supports 33 languages).

And we are always looking for volunteers with (or without since we are all learning) expertise to help us in these endeavors, and anybody is free to participate in the community (hint hint).

[aaavl2821]

Thanks for the info, I'll look into the project. I really believe EMRs need to work better for docs and be more open. I know a few physician-programmers who've built their own web apps but EMR integration obviously sucks. If they can build on top of something open source and a small medical group can save money without losing functionality with an open source solution, that could garner enough donations / financial support to for ex hire an engineer

I am only a hobbyist programmer and am investing most of my spare time into learning new things, but if I ever get to the point where I felt I could add something to the open source community I'd definitely start with a project like this

[brady_m]

I'm also a hobbyist programmer with a physician day job. Volunteering for OpenEMR has been and continues to be an awesome experience. If you or your colleagues are ever interested, always feel free to contact me at brady.g.miller (at) gmail (dot) com if you have any questions or use the forums at https://community.open-emr.org/ . Note that all of us are learning at all times, and the project welcomes all skill levels.