Open Source for Pandemic Recovery

The origin of Open Source software goes way back to the early days of the computer
industry. The network protocols that support the internet and the World Wide Web were
themselves were created using open source. It has been long established that open source
software can be used to create commercially viable technology with the likes of Linux OS,
Python, PHP, Mozilla etc and with the big tech players like Google, IBM, Intel, Adobe etc
investing and developing Open source software, the viability and long term sustainability of
the open source ecosystem is pretty much guaranteed.

In the past decade, internet and computer technology has permeated through every
major sector and has made business processes easier and faster. The IT sector is now heavily
supporting all major manufacturing and service sectors through its innovations and
efficiency. From Fintech to Edtech, technology is now everywhere and more and more
businesses and enterprises are switching to and depending on some form of software or
another to keep themselves functional. The outbreak of COVID-19 itself saw the value of
long distance communication and video conferencing software soar as the world switched to
video conferencing apps to ensure communications and business processes do not come to a
complete halt due to the lockdown all over the world. Employees were able to work from
their homes and businesses were able to coordinate and remain productive because of it.

IT in Healthcare

IT in healthcare has evolved beyond just being used for administrative and billing
purposes. Today there are numerous fields in which medical software plays an active role
with numerous options in the shape of software vendors and developers. From running
hospitals to private clinics to self diagnosing and keeping track of your personal health,
healthcare software has opened up great avenues of never before seen levels of medical data
available to the doctors and physicians as well as allowed for greater levels of coordination
among the medical fraternity.

Modern day Electronic health records allow doctors to access and store a patients
entire medical history from the illness suffered to the medicines administered and other
medical procedures. Another such software is a medical database software that keeps a record
of cases of various illnesses and diseases as well as the procedures administered so that newer
cases can be cross referenced and an accurate diagnosis can be reached.
 Researchers can use the medical database to conduct ground breaking medical
research based on real world data. During the COVID-19 pandemic, self-diagnosing as well
as telemedicine and e-medicine platforms saw a sharp rise in popularity. People called up
doctors on telemedicine platforms where they were diagnosed and prescribed treatment
online and these medicines could then be ordered on apps specifically designed for ordering
medicines online. From hospital management software to keep a track of patients, their
medication, doctors on duty, stock of medicinal supplies to medical imaging software used
for computer based scans, medical software have become an essential part of the healthcare
sector.

How can Open Source Software help

It has become increasingly clear that with every passing day, newer and better
technology is coming into the healthcare software ecosystem. Large hospitals require dozens
of medical software to keep themselves functioning. From keeping stock of the medicines, to
imaging, to storing patient records for in-house usage as well as updating the patients medical
history to filing insurance claims online, medical software ensure efficient and fast
processing time for patients, and in a life and death situation, time can be a precious asset.

And it is here that the issue lies. All of these functions require a highly sophisticated
software that while providing you with your required functionalities, is also secure and easy
to use, and software like these can be very expensive. Hospital management software like
proprietary CRM can be very expensive and costly to maintain. Proprietary software can also
lead to a vendor lock-in and you will be forced to avail services and products from the same
vendor at higher costs.

All these costs thus become unavoidable expenditure for the healthcare enterprise and
will then translate into higher medical expenses and charges for the patients, raising
healthcare expenses as a whole. Switching to Open source software allows you to use non-
proprietary software alternatives which perform similarly if not better as compared to the
proprietary software.

Advantages of Open Source Software

Open Source software provide great incentives for medical institutions looking to cut
down overhead costs related to healthcare software. The biggest issue with proprietary
software is high licensing fees, vendor lock-ins as well as high cost of switching to a
competitor where as for open source software, there are no licensing costs to speak of and
there is concept of locking-in clients through paid features.

Open source software are community driven and as such are constantly being worked
upon by community of developers. This allows the software to receive continuous update,
security patches, critical updates and quality of life upgrades without any overhead costs.
You don’t have to spend a chunk of your budget on licensing fees and can instead use that
money for other priorities. Keeping aside the enormous cost savings, the biggest advantage
that open source software have is that they are community driven. Their development,
upgrades are all dictated by what you, the user, requires from the software and the developers
are constantly taking in feedback and adding features, resolving bugs that you encounter in
every day usage.

Most open source software provide third party integration capabilities making it even
easier for your IT department to develop or even add features from other developers on to
your platform giving you complete control over the development of your healthcare software.

This ease of usage has allowed developers to use open source software to develop
software for use during the pandemic with very high efficiency. Within weeks of the COVID-
19 being designated as a pandemic, software that kept track of COVID-19 cases throughout
the world and even specific countries popped up.

How Open Source Software has helped with Pandemic Recovery

Open source software like eVIN have been instrumental in maintaining the logistic
end of vaccine supply with real time monitoring and building capacity of on-site health
workers. It has alone led to 80% reduction in vaccine stock-outs throughout India which has
greatly improved efficiency and efficacy of the vaccine drive. Software like Sunbird have
been instrumental in building vaccination capabilities of countries with their health
management software.

As opposed to proprietary software, open source software are extremely flexible

because of the thousands of developers working on the software. It was this fluidity that
allowed open source healthcare software to immediately add pandemic capabilities to their
arsenal and provide healthcare workers the necessary software capabilities to deal with
tracking patients, medical history and vaccination drives. The COVID-19 pandemic in itself
has caused huge revenue and monetary loss for countries and businesses across the world
while adding onto the stress on healthcare resources and infrastructure. With no licensing fee
to pay for some of the best healthcare management software in the sector, healthcare
institutions are able to keep their management costs low and divert every extra penny to
provide on-ground supplies and medical care for the affected population.

Bibliography

 https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/collection/digital-response-covid-19/open-source-solutions

 https://divoc.egov.org.in/

 https://www.datamation.com/open-source/35-top-open-source-companies/

 https://hitinfrastructure.com/news/benefits-of-open-source-software-to-healthcare-
community

 https://www.chcf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/PDF-OpenSourcePrimer.pdf

 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260810929_FreeLibre_Open_Source_Softw
are_in_Health_Care_A_Review

 https://www.opensourceforu.com/2017/05/open-source-software-enhancing-
healthcare/

 https://www.in.undp.org/content/india/en/home/projects/gavi1.html

 https://sunbird.org/