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Originally Posted by techguy
I'll have to take a look at sourcio and it's foundation.
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Sure, also have a look at the
blog entry about our implementation of the system that is in the demo. We are also going to be coming out with a web-based, Ajax-powered EMR soon, let me know if you want more info.
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Originally Posted by techguy
The reality is that all open source projects aren't free either. Open source isn't synonymous with free. Open source means that anyone can modify the code and most times can work on the code and contribute that code.
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The vast majority of open source projects give away their product (or at least a basic version of their product) for free, most of them also make the source code available. There are still costs of implementation, training, maintenance, support, etc., but the Total Cost of Ownership of an open source product is almost always lower than that of proprietary solutions for two reasons: one, the acquisition of the initial software is free; and two (and this is where I think that open source is really great, particularly for EMR's) lack of vendor lock-in. If the creator of an open-source product starts jacking up the prices for implementation and support, some other open source company can look at their product, their code, and say "hey, I can do that for cheaper." More competition, better for the customer. In practice, this is especially true for customizations. Most programmers (open source or not) are not really thrilled about things like implementation, training, and support, (especially for a product that is not theirs) but they love modifying and improving software. With proprietary software, only the owner of the code can change it, or decide who else can change it. With a good open source product, customers should be able to find plenty of independent OS firms that are willing to play with it and create a custom solution. That's exactly what we did for that product I mentioned above, we took care2x, added features and made changes as to the customer's specs, implemented, trained, etc.
I don't think Life Record is open source, though I remember reading "open technologies" somewhere on their site.