Open source win for IMS Maxims in NHS

Open source software appears to be gaining favour with England’s NHS, as cash-strapped NHS trusts examine all the options that support their quest to be paperless by 2018.

Wye Valley NHS Trust has just become the second NHS trust to opt for an open source electronic patient record system (EPR) from IMS Maxims, signing a five-year services contract with the SME. At Wye Valley, the UK’s first open source EPR will replace the patient administration software (PAS) that the trust received from CSC via the National Programme for IT in the NHS by the end of 2016. Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust is also set to go live with openMAXIMS later this year.  

For Wye Valley, the ability to tailor the software and share developments in code with other health providers, were important factors in the decision to go with open source. As, unsurprisingly, was cost. As Simon Lind, project and portfolio manager at the Trust, said: “The fact that there are no licence charges was of particular interest to us.”

Dublin-headquartered IMS Maxims took the decision to release the open source code for its full MAXIMS product suite free of charge to the NHS in June last year. The decision came at a time when NHS England was advising trusts to evaluate open source EPR options, which it considered to be flexible, potentially less costly, and minimising supplier lock-in.

For the full story and more analysis of the rise of open source in the NHS, TechMarketView subscription service clients can read today’s UKHotViewsExtra article: Open source gathers momentum in NHS.

Posted by Tola Sargeant at '10:18' - Tagged: contract   software   health   open+source