ThoughtWorks
  • Contact
  • Español
  • Português
  • Deutsch
  • 中文
Go to overview
  • Engineering Culture, Delivery Mindset

    Embrace a modern approach to software development and deliver value faster

    Intelligence-Driven Decision Making

    Leverage your data assets to unlock new sources of value

  • Frictionless Operating Model

    Improve your organization's ability to respond to change

    Platform Strategy

    Create adaptable technology platforms that move with your business strategy

  • Experience Design and Product Capability

    Rapidly design, deliver and evolve exceptional products and experiences

    Partnerships

    Leveraging our network of trusted partners to amplify the outcomes we deliver for our clients

Go to overview
  • Automotive
  • Cleantech, Energy and Utilities
  • Financial Services and Insurance
  • Healthcare
  • Media and Publishing
  • Not-for-profit
  • Public Sector
  • Retail and E-commerce
  • Travel and Transport
Go to overview

Featured

  • Technology

    An in-depth exploration of enterprise technology and engineering excellence

  • Business

    Keep up to date with the latest business and industry insights for digital leaders

  • Culture

    The place for career-building content and tips, and our view on social justice and inclusivity

Digital Publications and Tools

  • Technology Radar

    An opinionated guide to technology frontiers

  • Perspectives

    A publication for digital leaders

  • Digital Fluency Model

    A model for prioritizing the digital capabilities needed to navigate uncertainty

  • Decoder

    The business execs' A-Z guide to technology

All Insights

  • Articles

    Expert insights to help your business grow

  • Blogs

    Personal perspectives from ThoughtWorkers around the globe

  • Books

    Explore our extensive library

  • Podcasts

    Captivating conversations on the latest in business and tech

Go to overview
  • Application process

    What to expect as you interview with us

  • Grads and career changers

    Start your tech career on the right foot

  • Search jobs

    Find open positions in your region

  • Stay connected

    Sign up for our monthly newsletter

Go to overview
  • Conferences and Events
  • Diversity and Inclusion
  • News
  • Open Source
  • Our Leaders
  • Social Change
  • Español
  • Português
  • Deutsch
  • 中文
ThoughtWorksMenu
  • Close   ✕
  • What we do
  • Who we work with
  • Insights
  • Careers
  • About
  • Contact
  • Back
  • Close   ✕
  • Go to overview
  • Engineering Culture, Delivery Mindset

    Embrace a modern approach to software development and deliver value faster

  • Experience Design and Product Capability

    Rapidly design, deliver and evolve exceptional products and experiences

  • Frictionless Operating Model

    Improve your organization's ability to respond to change

  • Intelligence-Driven Decision Making

    Leverage your data assets to unlock new sources of value

  • Partnerships

    Leveraging our network of trusted partners to amplify the outcomes we deliver for our clients

  • Platform Strategy

    Create adaptable technology platforms that move with your business strategy

  • Back
  • Close   ✕
  • Go to overview
  • Automotive
  • Cleantech, Energy and Utilities
  • Financial Services and Insurance
  • Healthcare
  • Media and Publishing
  • Not-for-profit
  • Public Sector
  • Retail and E-commerce
  • Travel and Transport
  • Back
  • Close   ✕
  • Go to overview
  • Featured

  • Technology

    An in-depth exploration of enterprise technology and engineering excellence

  • Business

    Keep up to date with the latest business and industry insights for digital leaders

  • Culture

    The place for career-building content and tips, and our view on social justice and inclusivity

  • Digital Publications and Tools

  • Technology Radar

    An opinionated guide to technology frontiers

  • Perspectives

    A publication for digital leaders

  • Digital Fluency Model

    A model for prioritizing the digital capabilities needed to navigate uncertainty

  • Decoder

    The business execs' A-Z guide to technology

  • All Insights

  • Articles

    Expert insights to help your business grow

  • Blogs

    Personal perspectives from ThoughtWorkers around the globe

  • Books

    Explore our extensive library

  • Podcasts

    Captivating conversations on the latest in business and tech

  • Back
  • Close   ✕
  • Go to overview
  • Application process

    What to expect as you interview with us

  • Grads and career changers

    Start your tech career on the right foot

  • Search jobs

    Find open positions in your region

  • Stay connected

    Sign up for our monthly newsletter

  • Back
  • Close   ✕
  • Go to overview
  • Conferences and Events
  • Diversity and Inclusion
  • News
  • Open Source
  • Our Leaders
  • Social Change
Blogs
Select a topic
View all topicsClose
Technology 
Agile Project Management Cloud Continuous Delivery  Data Science & Engineering Defending the Free Internet Evolutionary Architecture Experience Design IoT Languages, Tools & Frameworks Legacy Modernization Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence Microservices Platforms Security Software Testing Technology Strategy 
Business 
Financial Services Global Health Innovation Retail  Transformation 
Careers 
Career Hacks Diversity & Inclusion Social Change 
Blogs

Topics

Choose a topic
  • Technology
    Technology
  • Technology Overview
  • Agile Project Management
  • Cloud
  • Continuous Delivery
  • Data Science & Engineering
  • Defending the Free Internet
  • Evolutionary Architecture
  • Experience Design
  • IoT
  • Languages, Tools & Frameworks
  • Legacy Modernization
  • Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence
  • Microservices
  • Platforms
  • Security
  • Software Testing
  • Technology Strategy
  • Business
    Business
  • Business Overview
  • Financial Services
  • Global Health
  • Innovation
  • Retail
  • Transformation
  • Careers
    Careers
  • Careers Overview
  • Career Hacks
  • Diversity & Inclusion
  • Social Change
Global HealthBusiness

5 Reasons Every Developer Should Contribute to OpenMRS

Shruthi Pitta Shruthi Pitta

Published: Jan 25, 2017

Until mid-2015, I wrote code for proprietary software.

In August of that year, I joined ThoughtWorks as a developer for Bahmni, an open-source hospital information system built for low-resource environments. Bahmni combines lab, billing, pharmacy, radiology and many other features on one platform. It has an offline interface called Bahmni Connect that runs on Android / Chrome. It is a free and open-source distribution of OpenMRS.

ThoughtWorks believes in open source. The ThoughtWorkers on Bahmni projects consider ourselves an active part of the worldwide OpenMRS community: we contribute to the software, help solve common problems, and aim to attend the yearly meetups.

The Implementers’ Conference in Uganda in December 2016 was my first time at an OpenMRS event. At the conference I found myself among a diverse group of 400 energetic technologists and OpenMRS users, each one passionate about improving healthcare delivery around the world. While I had thoroughly enjoyed my time so far working on Bahmni—and by extension OpenMRS—the conference made me understand why what I do is so deeply satisfying.

1. The reach of your code is global

Five reasons why every developer should contribute to OpenMRS
[The OpenMRS Atlas showing the reach of the OpenMRS software]

The OpenMRS community is “building the world’s largest and most flexible health technology platform to support the delivery of health care in some of the most challenging environments on the planet.” This includes Uganda, Kenya, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Rwanda, South Africa, Indonesia, Philippines, Kazakhstan, Peru, Bolivia, Aman, Sierra Leone, Peru, United Kingdom, Turkey, and Algeria, to name but a few. 

What began as a response to the African HIV crisis in the early 2000s is creating great local impact among communities in many remote corners of the world including for the indigenous population (Adivasis) of Gudalur, a village on the Nilgiri Hills of Tamil Nadu in southern India which use Bahmni, a distribution of OpenMRS.

In fact, a line of code you add to OpenMRS could be running on thousands of computers in remote corners of the world, enabling practitioners provide more effective healthcare.​​

2. The impact of your work is local

I look forward to the lives of my relatives being saved because we improve healthcare​.
This is a quote from Daniel Kayiwa, one of OpenMRS's lead developers in Uganda, summarizing how real and how close the impact of our work is. 

While at the conference in Uganda, we visited the Mulago National Referral hospital in Kiruddu, a government facility that uses Ugandan EMR (an OpenMRS distribution customized for Uganda). Here, we could see for ourselves how technology enables better access to healthcare. From the general ward to the burns unit, the maternity ward to the HIV program, OpenMRS touches the lives of thousands in local communities.

3. Problem solving is collaborative

Five reasons why every developer should contribute to OpenMRS
[Hackathon at the OpenMRS Implementers’ Conference in Dec 2016]

The OpenMRS community is an active and vibrant group of volunteers driven by a common passion. Problem-solving here is collaborative. Developers and implementers come together to discuss, debate, and organize around problems that need our attention.​

At the two-day hackathon after the conference, some of us came together and picked up an issue in the OpenMRS Reference Application. We reproduced the issue, debugged, and fixed it. We pushed the code and Mike Seaton from Partners In Health who had merge privileges on OpenMRS, reviewed it, and merged it to OpenMRS core.

Not often is the collaboration so immediate or in person, but wherever we are, whatever the problem is, the solution is collaborative.

We also share feedback and suggestions to members of the community to make the solutions stronger. For instance, we received feedback on the form builder and Bahmni Connect (the offline interface of Bahmni) during our demo at the conference. We heard from those who’ve tried building similar features: what they did well, what they didn’t, what to keep in mind and what to avoid. We returned with ideas that can make Bahmni a better product.

4. Problems you’re solving are real and immediate

At the conference, the OpenMRS community shared and discussed problems faced by professionals in healthcare delivery across the globe. These were the needs of on-the-ground users of the product. For instance, we heard about how mobile interfaces can help doctors treat patients more effectively in remote areas. We discussed the need for better data analytics to monitor processes and improving communication. We also talked about the integration of OpenMRS with DHIS2—an open source platform for reporting, analysis and dissemination of data for health programs—towards better monitoring and evaluation of a health program.

When any of these capabilities are built, there are doctors, nurses, hospital staff and other medical professionals whose lives we would have made better.

5. The learning is equally rewarding

OpenMRS has a scalable generic data model and a modular architecture. It is a good framework to learn concepts such as aspect-oriented programming, dependency injection, and modular architecture.

Five reasons why every developer should contribute to OpenMRSIn addition, with OpenMRS, you can choose what kind of contribution you want to make. For instance, a team from ThoughtWorks recently conducted experiments with IoT and machine learning to improve patient experiences with Bahmni.

The most rewarding part of my work on Bahmni and the OpenMRS community is the opportunity to work with a distinguished team of specialists and technologists. I learn constantly from them not just about building robust, reusable, scalable technology, but also contributing meaningfully to environments and users that I don’t entirely understand.

If you are a developer, analyst, tester, technologist or even just a curious passer-by, I’d recommend you consider contributing to OpenMRS in some way. Being part of a vibrant community, working towards a worthy goal, making a real impact can be significantly rewarding. I wish for you the satisfaction I have had working on Bahmni and with the OpenMRS community.
Related blogs
Global Health

Team Bahmni at the OpenMRS Worldwide Summit 2015

Gurpreet Luthra
Learn more
Global Health

Designing for People with Low Digital Literacy

Arvind Sethia
Learn more
Global Health

A Visual Journey of How Bahmni is Used

Amira A . Pettus
Learn more
  • What we do
  • Who we work with
  • Insights
  • Careers
  • About
  • Contact

WeChat

×
QR code to ThoughtWorks China WeChat subscription account

Media and analyst relations | Privacy policy | Modern Slavery statement ThoughtWorks| Accessibility | © 2021 ThoughtWorks, Inc.