Pentaho and OpenMRS Bring Medical Records to Developing Countries

Over in IT Business Edge's Sarbox Survival Guide blog, we've been talking on and off for awhile now about electronic health records systems. So when I found this Market Wire release, it felt a little like my worlds were colliding.

Here's the scoop. Open source BI specialist Pentaho is teaming up with the Open Medical Records System (OpenMRS) project to better integrate BI tools with the system. According to the release:

The integrated system demonstrates the power of the open source model to deliver real-world impact via community development to address user populations that are unable to acquire or maintain traditional proprietary medical records systems.

From what I can gather, the project is designed to be used in developing nations where AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other serious illnesses are prevalent and access to proprietary medical records software is limited or non-existent. The added BI capabilities will allow users to create reports and analyze the data in the OpenMRS quickly and more thoroughly. The tools will also help to decrease unnecessary duplication in treatment, record keeping and reporting.