NOSH EMR: Free, Open source Health Charting System built by a doctor for doctors
NOSH (New Open Source Health) ChartingSystem is a free open source charting system and electronic medical record. It was developed by doctor Michael Chen, MD. So NOSH EMR is a result of an extreme end-user experience with different sort and settings of EMR and professional in-practice who realizes what's missing in the practice with the currently used systems.
NOSH EMR addresses major issues in the current daily practice especially for general practitioners as integration with popular medical databases required in medical practice ( SNOMED-CT, ICD-10, CPT) and of course FDA drugs database. Most of the current EMR/ EHR commercial and open source ones are not powered by such integration.
Medical Records & Charting!
Charting is an essential tool of what the doctors need, however, many medical software producers and developers fail to meet this demand either because they focus on the data as records not how it should be presented or assembled. NOSH EMR, however, has based its core features around charting with multi-models /options as :
- Active issues list
- Medication list
- Supplements list
- Allergy list
- Past encounters
- Organized document handling system
- Automated task reminder and alert system
Even more NOSH EMR has provided the end-user the ability to customize and personalize the charting template for the end-user ( the doctor ).
Finding a record and tracing record
Search or querying records is often a major tool in any EMR, with NOSH EMR It goes beyond simple query/ search functions as providing the doctor the ability to query your patients based on age, gender, issues, diagnoses, medications, supplements, and tags. And creating user custom tags to classify records.
Multiple portals vs multiple access levels
Unlike most of the EMR solutions out there, NOSH EMR has divided the system into portals including a patient portal, assistant portal, billing user portal ( The accountant ), and the provider user ( The doctor ). This model requires more work to finalize the system yet it provides more flexibility adding features and customizing every portal without affecting the whole system.
Patient portal
The patient portal is always a tricky part when it comes to security and interacting with the patient. Most of the open-source and commercial EHR I have encountered don't have a patient portal and the limited few which do have limited options for the patient as they built to inform the patient about his appointments or just to give the patient the ability to reserve an appointment which was not totally integrated into the system as well. Well,NOSH EMR provides the patient with full integration within the system through the patient portal here is the patient portal features :
- Secure messaging to the provider or the provider’s assistant(s)
- Schedule appointments online with the provider
- Automatic appointment reminders via email or SMS
- Review lab results and other health-care related documents in the patient’s chart
- Patients can fill out personalized electronic forms (registration forms, social, history forms, anything else you like!) that directly integrate into the patient encounter with a click of a button.
Patient events timeline
Every patient has engagement or encounter events timeline, accessible for the patient through his portal so as the doctor which gives more informative approach for the patient and the doctor about what happened over time.
Built to be modular.
NOSH EMR has been developed to be modular to enable/ disable modules and features as the end-user sees fit. Hopefully, the next wave of upgrades and documentation will provide developers with features how to integrate services and solutions with NOSH EMR.
I didn't list all the features of NOSH EMR, as I have decided to focus on the most promising and required features doctors are struggling with every day. Therefore, here is a list of all current features of NOSH EMR
Built by a doctor for doctors
NOSH EMR has only one developer now, Dr Michael Chen I have a little chat with him about the usage of NOSH EMR around the world since it was released he stated it has been downloaded and used in several countries.
Basically, what Dr. Michael Chen, has provided in NOSH EMR is what we have missing in medical practice not just in the US but around the world. He focused on Integration of database, services, current office infrastructure, involving the patient with the patient flow, improving the communication, charts personalization, providing more communication options.
Project license : GPL
Platform: Client(Web browser) -Server(Linux),
