Where we are today
The OpenMRS Community continues to work deliberately, without pause, around our mission of creating a world-class process to improve patient record management practices.
We are growing an increasingly diverse group of people who come from everywhere, from large corporations or individuals.
We are learning by doing and building a collective wisdom informed by experience. We are smart, innovative thinkers who aren’t afraid to get our hands dirty.
Over the last couple of years, the OpenMRS Community has been in the early stages of a very significant, exciting, and exhilarating renaissance. More an more of those who are implementing OpenMRS at scale realize that we’re all successful when we work together, collaborating all along the implementation continuum. And as a result of this realization, we’re seeing a much more fundamental and deep engagement with the community emerge, one that we haven’t seen historically. As exciting as this is, this shift challenges all of us to figure out how we empower this growing collection of diverse people in collective activity.
We’re headed in a ground-breaking direction, with our implementations, our technology, our community. We’re here because every small contribution you have made has evolved into massive, collective contributions over a long period of time.
And today, there’s so much going on with OpenMRS and our community that it can feel daunting. In these moments, take some time to step back from your implementation or the direct work you’re doing. Our annual report can give you a five thousand feet view of our collective work that we’re all doing within the community to advance OpenMRS.
I couldn’t be more excited to be working alongside with you in the OpenMRS community. And I couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve all built together.
OpenMRS implementations continue on their remarkable trajectory.
This graph represents implementation data provided by: AMPATH, APIN, Baobab Health Trust, BFGK Magankorhaz, CURE, UCSF, Haitian Health Foundation, ICAP, IHS Informatics, I-TECH | CHARESS, Jembi Health Systems, Management Development for Health, Maternal and Child Health Training Institute (Bangladesh), Measure Evaluation, Millenium Villages Project, Management Sciences for Health, Nuchange, Palladium, Partners in Health, Philippines Ministry of Health, PHIS3, Possible Health, Sri Lanka Post Graduate Institute for Health, Tajikistan Republican TB Centre, Samanvay, Satvix, Siem Reap Provincial Hospital of Cambodia, Socios En Salud Sucursal Peru, The Banyan, Thoughtworks, Tsungru Central Hospital, Uganda METS, Vecnacares, VHW Burundi, Vietnam Provincial AIDS Committee, Wuqu-Kawoq.
Don’t see your implementation? Share your implementation’s data by completing this form and we’ll include it on our website counter and in our 2022 Annual Report.
We Are OpenMRS: Community-Driven Action
Openly Sharing, Collaborating, and Learning
Although fewer contributors joined the community in 2021 than in the past, we’re seeing a greater number of people than ever before actively gathering on Talk and Slack to ask questions, share challenges, and solve problems together.
OpenMRS Talent
Each year, the OpenMRS Community supports programs designed to engage new contributors and help existing contributors become our community’s technical leaders of tomorrow.
3 months
4 admins
11 projects
11 students
14 mentors
3 months
2 admins
1 project
1 technical writer
4 community writers
OpenMRS Fellowships
12 months
1 admin
3 projects
7 fellows
3 mentors
Where the Action Happens
Most of the action is happening among small squads of implementers and volunteers who, with assistance from OpenMRS Inc staff, increasingly respond to implementer priorities and drive our shared community assets forward. Organizations are making a deliberate choice to work together on multiple squads, with new organizations coming on board each year.
6 organizations contributing to
3 squads/teams with assistance from
3 OpenMRS Inc supported roles
12 organizations contributing to
7 squads/teams with assistance from
8 OpenMRS Inc supported roles
16 organizations contributing to
7 squads/teams with assistance from
7 OpenMRS Inc supported roles
- AMPATH
- Brown University
- Mekom Solutions
- Partners In Health
- Regenstrief Institute
- I-TECH | University of Washington
- Columbia International eHealth Laboratory (CIEL)
- Intellisoft Consulting Ltd
- Medecins Sans Frontiere
- Open Concept Lab
- Columbia International eHealth Laboratory (CIEL)
- Intellisoft Consulting Ltd
- Medecins Sans Frontiere
- Open Concept Lab
Where OpenMRS Code Contributions Happens
A growing number of organizations are committed to achieving OpenMRS’ vision. The majority of organizations customize and deploy OpenMRS at the health facility level. A smaller number of organizations, however, are choosing to make significant, upstream code contributions to recognized, shared OpenMRS repos that everyone can use.
This information is primarily based on where contributors make their github code commits. Some organizations focus on local implementations. Others are focused on shared OpenMRS code. Still others are able to make significant contributions to both shared community code and local implementations. Here’s how we broke this down:
Upstream: Organizations that frequently make commits to primarily OpenMRS github repos and/or a github repo used by a squad or with contributors from more than one organization (e.g.: Google Analytics, iSantePlus/openmrs-module-labintegration, etc).
Upstream & local implementations: Organizations make commits to both OpenMRS github repos and to one or more OpenMRS distributions’ or implementations’ github repo.
Local distribution/implementation: The majority of an organizations’ commits are primarily made to a single OpenMRS distribution or implementation.
Don’t see your organization’s github repo? Submit your github information via our 2021 Implementer Data Survey
Want to know how you can make more upstream contributions? Contact us.
Who Makes Upstream Code Contributions
Top 30 Developers of 2021
Many people contribute code to OpenMRS. Some contributions are specific to a distribution or implementation. Other contributions have high value for many OpenMRS implementations and become a part of our shared, community repos. These are the 30 developers with the most code contributions that have been reviewed by our community’s lead developers, determined to be of quality and value to the greater OpenMRS community, and merged into our shared repos.
OpenMRS Developer Hall of Fame
“If I have seen further than others, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
– Isaac Newton
Tomorrow’s OpenMRS developers take OpenMRS to new heights by re-using and improving the code contributed over the years by these top 100 OpenMRS developers.
Who's Going Beyond Code Contributions
Bringing us all together to create and maintain our community products relies on the work being done to tell our story, help others get started, follow shared conventions, and share the tools and resources many of us seek.
OpenMRS 3.X Developer & Implementer Guides
Brandon Istenes
Partners In Health
Telling Our Stories via Our New Website
Zuzanna Perkowska
Soldevelo Social Impact Foundation
Integration with FHIR-based Facility Registry
Piotr Mankowski
University of Washington
Moses Mutesasira
I-TECH DIGI
Generating And Importing Synthetic HIV Datasets Using Synthea
Bashir Sajdad
Google Health
Omar Ismail
Google Health
OpenMRS 3.o Design
Ciaran Duffy
Sonder Design
Paul Adams
Sonder Design
OpenMRS Flight Paths for Getting Started
Brett Studer
Google Season of Docs
#OMRS21: OpenMRS Implementers Virtual Meeting
“Amazing!” “Awesome!” “Excellent!” “Loaded!” “Outstanding!”
Between 75 and 200 people gathered over the course of four days in early December for our 2021 Virtual OpenMRS Implementers Meeting. At least 80% came to learn about new OpenMRS projects or to gain knowledge to use on the job or at school. From plenary sessions with the OpenMRS Board of Directors and Ministry of Health representatives to Lightning Talks, Squad and Implementer Showcases, and Unconferencing Sessions, there was a little something for everyone.
Popular Unconferencing Topics at #OMRS21
Winning Proposals
In 2021, OpenMRS Inc continued to secure funding through new grants and donations.
This funding supports essential community roles as well as fellowship program projects such as:
Standards-based patient level indicator reporting,
Dictionary Manager web app,
Improving our automated quality assurance tools for core OpenMRS products.
2021
2020
All Thanks to You
In addition to all of the organizations and individuals actively contributing to our community, we are grateful for the in-kind infrastructure support and financial investment of the following groups:
In kind infrastructure
Atlassian
Indiana University’s Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE)
Jetstream
Saucelabs
Financial Investment
Digital Square
Google Season of Docs
Google Summer of Code
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention