6 of the Best Free Linux Electronic Medical Records Software

In developed countries, healthcare workers represent a significant proportion of the working population.

For example, in the United Kingdom, more than 1 million people work for the National Health Service, a publicly funded healthcare system.

Medical software therefore has a huge market to tap. Whatever stage of a country's economic development, health care is one of the most important elements in society.

This article focuses on software that provides Electronic Medical Records (EMR) functionality. This type of record is used in a hospital and doctor's surgery to capture medical information, reducing the amount of physical records, and the costs associated in storing them.

EMR software can make an appreciable difference to improve a medical organisation's efficiency and raise quality standards.

For example, it reduces storage costs, minimises medical errors, provides statistical reporting, and assists clinical studies.

We have also published a medical article covering the best Medical Imaging Software.

Open source EMR software has an important role to play.

In a resource poor country, commercial healthcare computer software may simply not be affordable.

Alternatively, developed countries can make significant savings in IT costs by using an open source EMR system without compromising on patient care.

To provide in insight into the quality of software that is available, we have compiled a list of 6 high quality open source EMR software.

Now, let's explore the 6 EMR applications at hand. For each title we have compiled its own portal page, a full description with an in-depth analysis of its features, a screenshot of the software in action, together with links to relevant resources and reviews.

Electronic Medical Records Software
ClearHealth	Practice management and EMR system
OpenEMR	Open source replacement for Medical Manager, Health Pro, and Misys
PatientOS	Healthcare Information System for small hospitals and clinics
GNUmed	Medical practice management
OpenMRS	Designed to be usable in very resource poor environments
FreeMED	EMR system and practice administration