News: Open Source

Countries Save $177 Million with iHRIS

We know that iHRIS helps save lives by allowing countries to place health workers where and when they are most needed. But it also saves money. A lot of money. Annually iHRIS gives the 19 nations that use its open source software the opportunity to save $177 million. Without iHRIS, that money would be spent on licensing fees alone. That’s money that iHRIS nations can reinvest in their people, systems, and infrastructure to improve the health and...

Special Event Showcases the iHRIS Software for Strengthening the Health Workforce

On May 6, Capacity Plus hosted its third knowledge-sharing and dissemination event, Better Data, Stronger Health Workforce: The Open Source iHRIS Approach . Held at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, the event showcased iHRIS , the leading open source software for tracking and managing data on the health workforce. Through a combination of presentations by USAID and Capacity Plus , interactive roundtable discussions, software...

Join the Discussion About Implementing Open Source Software

A longer version of this post was originally published on the Global Health Workforce Alliance Members’ Platform . Capacity Plus is the featured member in March. We encourage you to join and contribute to the discussion. The World Health Organization recognizes a key component to achieving universal health coverage is “ a sufficient capacity of well-trained, motivated health workers .” For many countries, successfully managing the distribution of...

In the Spotlight: iHRIS Saves Countries Over $100 Million

Capacity Plus is spotlighting the money-saving power of iHRIS free and open source software. Capacity Plus supports development of the core iHRIS software and, along with other IntraHealth -led projects, partners with countries around the world to roll out the software and train staff members to use and maintain it. The iHRIS software has now given 16 countries powerful data-management capabilities that, if purchased from for-profit companies...

New Publication Highlights Value of Open Source Health Applications

A new Capacity Plus Voices , “ Improving health systems with the power of open source ,” highlights the value of free, open source health information systems such as our iHRIS Suite . Read the publication to find out how Dr. Alvin Marcelo plans to use iHRIS along with other health applications, like DHIS 2 (a district health management system), to improve health outcomes in the Philippines. Dr. Marcelo believes these applications can work...

A West African Perspective on Open Source

Growing up in Nigeria, Kayode Odusote liked figuring out how things work. As a young boy, he would often purchase Radio Shack do-it-yourself kits and assemble them. Years later he became a neurologist and professor, and more recently served as director for human resources development at the West African Health Organization (WAHO). WAHO is an umbrella organization of 15 member countries, and one of Professor Odusote’s key aims was to help these...

Settle to Discuss Open Source in Global Health

On February 18, the Triangle Global Health Consortium's (TGHC) will host a discussion on the impact of open source technologies on global health. Dykki Settle , HRIS team lead, will join Paul Jones of the University of North Carolina and Ed Hammond of Duke University for a panel discussion about the contributions open source systems have made to health systems in the developing world. Visit the TGHC's site for more details. You can also follow...

iHRIS Cited in Paper Advocating for FOSS

One of the iHRIS software developers recently ran across an article by Darren Wilkins that advocates for free and Open Source software (FOSS) in Africa and cites the iHRIS software as an example of an Open Source initiative already underway in several African countries. In 'Running a Windows-based computing platform may be too costly for Liberia- It is time to start using Open Source Software,' Wilkins argues that FOSS is crucial to Liberia’s...

50 Successful Open Source Projects That Are Changing Medicine

This list of 50 successful Open Source projects that are changing medicine was posted on the Medicine 3.0 blog back in February, but it just recently came to our attention. Of course, we are happy that iHRIS is listed under the Medical Practice Management Software section. But this list is also a great resource of interesting open source development projects that fill niches other than health worker HR information systems or otherwise complement...

GHC Conference: Talking About Open Source

The second plenary session I attended was called "The Big Choice: The Successes and Challenges of Open Source Technology." The panelists were Karl Brown from the Rockefeller Foundation , Paul Biondich of OpenMRS , Alexandre Rideau of Reseau African d'Education pour la Sante and our own Pape Gaye, CEO of IntraHealth International . While the panelists were careful to say that they were not open source evangelists, they spent a lot more time...