Open SourceMedical Software Donations
Open Source Medical Software is a not-for-profit corporation organized in North Carolina, March 15, 2005. We have been granted tax-exempt status in the State of North Carolina in 2005. The Board of Directors has been pursuing United States tax exempt status, 501(c)(3), since March of 2006.
Currently 501(c)(3) status is pending.
OSMS functions entirely off of donations of volunteer time and donations of software to the OpenEMR project using the GPL 2. The most recent accounting of volunteer time and donated software totaled $550,000. A typical median cost of an electronic medical record in the United States is about $25,000 per physician. Costs for a multiple physician practice can easily be $50,000-$100,000. Billing Software is frequently sold separately for $10,000-25,000 per physician. Together, median costs for the electronic medical record and the billing software are likely $35,000.
In September of OpenEMR was downloaded from SourceForge 1,594 times. The OpenEMR project in September donated $56 million dollars worth of free software to organizations that are delivering health care to the many of the under-insured or uninsured citizens of our world. OSMS and the OpenEMR project average 1059 donated packages worth $37 million a month.
In the United States, medical practices that are well established can afford the expense of Commercial EMRs. OpenEMR appeals most to young doctors and practitioners who are just starting out and can not afford these "Commercial Luxury EMRs".
The organizations that are using OpenEMR include International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). IPPF has established three pilot projects in Barbados, Indonesia and Nepal. Assuming successful completion of these projects they plan to distribute OpenEMR world wide in 150 different countries.
OpenEMR is also developing in popularity in Greece, India, Nepal, Kenya. Many of the applications in the countries to assist physicians to provide health to poverty stricken patients in these countries.
We are accepting donations to fund ongoing needs for the project. The most pressing of the these is to help pay for certification by CCHIT for the OpenEMR software. The CCHIT certification fee is $35,000. If you would like to donate please contact:
Samuel T. Bowen, MD, President
Open Source Medical Software
1470 9th Ave Dr NE
Hickory, NC 28601
Donation Information:
