Shahid over at HealthCare IT Guy pointed me to a good whitepaper done by iHealthReports called Open Source Primer for Healthcare(warning: pdf file).

I think this whitepaper couldn’t have been more timely. Anyone whose read this EMR and HIPAA blog knows I love the statistics of this website as much as the posting itself (which really says something since I love posting). Free EMR has to be the biggest search term I get on this website (HIPAA Lawsuits may be the only exception, but I think those numbers are inflated because of technorati’s referral method)

Either way, everyone wants to know about Free EMR offerings and many open source EMR programs make you think it is free. I can tell you now that open source doesn’t always mean free. In fact, most open source EMR projects still have many costs in support, implementation, enhancements, etc etc etc. However, there are some other important advantages to open source EMR projects. The white paper does a good job helping figure out what open source means in healthcare. Take a look and let me know what you think.