Digitizing paediatric care with Bahmni
CURE International is a nonprofit network of children’s hospitals across Africa and the Philippines, which provides free surgical care for children with disabilities. CURE’s work is focused on enabling children to lead full and active lives, and often means patients gain acceptance within their communities for the first time.
Thoughtworks partnered with CURE International to digitize CURE's network of seven hospitals in Africa, by implementing Bahmni. Bahmni is an open-source Hospital Information and Electronic Medical Records system, designed specifically for low-resource settings, which Thoughtworks created and has nurtured for over a decade.
Before the implementation was even complete, CURE doctors, leaders, and administrators were reaping the benefits of working with Bahmni: thousands of dollars in savings, improved efficiency, and medical teams finding that the system gave them more time to focus on patients.
I'm very excited that this project was able to deliver a solution that is world class for our patients but, at the same time, very cost-effective. We've proven that Bahmni, an open source electronic medical record system, has really improved the care that our patients receive.
About Bahmni
Born out of a collaboration with the JSS hospital in India that began in 2012, Bahmni now operates in over 50 countries, serving millions of patients. Its mission is to provide a high-quality, free, and comprehensive digital healthcare solution comparable to those in high-income countries.
In 2017, the Bahmni Coalition was formed to expand its reach and involve a larger community in its development and direction. Bahmni was added to the registry of Digital Public Goods in 2021 and was the first open-source software to be certified as part of the ABDM – India’s digital healthcare backbone.
Recent innovations
The creation of Bahmni Lite, to serve smaller hospitals and clinics.
The integration of SNOMED CT, a Medical terminology dictionary.
A new feature, Medispeak, which converts voice inputs into structured data, further reducing the administrative burden on doctors.
The good news about Bahmni is that a number of different organizations are involved, which ensures continuous improvement. Bahmni is also easily customizable, allowing us to tailor the solution to meet patient care and safety processes that are specific to the way CURE hospitals run.
