Armin Marth wrote: > Exporting patient files, with the patients details (name, DOB, sex, > Medicare number, etc.) from HCN's software is possible as they can be > exported from the program as a delimited text file (patients.out), but > the patient's billing history, etc. cannot be imported into another > medical practice suite and the database isn't accessible without HCN's > access (logged in with a valid logon). > This is not quite true. Data can be exported from the clinical component of HCN's software, Medial Director, on a patient by patient basis. One output option is XML format. I offer a modest example, http://ozdoc.mine.nu/wedgetail/wedetail_wedgewood.xml
The format for this data is undocumented but should not be too difficult to decipher. It changes from time to time so you are playing samba to HCN's Microsoft. Nevertheless if we can get a stable data structure for clinical information, it becomes much more feasible to move clinical between rival Australian EMRs (electronic medical record systems). This is the path as Tony and Ken suggest and is certainly the next step. Another hoped for, and perhaps more stable, format will be that of Google Health's. This is in beta and they are making the API available for external developers. > Now, this type of software is the perfect candidate to be on an open > platform (which some medical practices use Linux to store a flat-file > database on), and with simple google seaches I've found some > open-source Medical Billing/Appointment book practice management > suites, but they were all on 0.x releases and unsuitable for the > Australian medical billing system, with no mention to Medicare. Has > anyone found anything for Australia; I'd be interested in following > the development for a Linux/multiplatform open-source practice > management suite suited to Australia's medical/Medicare standards. > I am not aware of any proprietary or open source solutions that run on linux, although one practice management system runs postgres under Windows and is applying for certification from Medicare Australia to also run under linux. David P.S. Armin, I hope the boss doesn't hear of this thread. The Australian medical IT scene is both very proprietary and very litigious. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
