@article {18570554, title = {Standards-based, open-source electronic health record systems: a desirable future for the U.S. health industry.}, journal = {Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association}, volume = {14}, year = {2008}, month = {2008 Apr}, pages = {284-8}, abstract = {Many healthcare systems are moving toward a fully electronic health record (EHR) in order to better manage patient care. Unfortunately, in the United States, many current EHR systems leave much to be desired. Among well-documented criticisms are that they tend to be inflexible, proprietary, nonintuitive, expensive, difficult to maintain and rarely interoperable across health systems. From the clinician{\textquoteright}s perspective, these flaws sometimes make having an EHR system seem no better than retaining a paper-based system. Open-source software, a great success in other information-intensive industries, is one possible solution to these problems, and may help integrate a functional EHR system into, and across, more health systems and clinics because of the greater potential for local customization. We believe that the advantages of an open-source EHR system outweigh the costs of a more traditional, proprietary EHR system, and recommend that more work be done to advance an interoperable open-source EHR system in the United States. Open-source EHR systems have the potential to improve healthcare in the United States as they have done in many other areas around the world.}, author = {Yellowlees, Peter M and Marks, Shayna L and Hogarth, Michael and Turner, Stuart} }