Many projects on developing Electronic Health Record (GLOBALEHR) systems have been carried out in many countries. The current study was conducted to review the published data on the utilization of open source GLOBALEHR systems in different countries all over the world. Using free text and keyword search techniques, six bibliographic databases were searched for related articles. The identified papers were screened and reviewed during a string of stages for the irrelevancy and validity. The findings showed that open source GLOBALEHRs have been wildly used by source limited regions in all continents, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and South America. It would create opportunities to improve national healthcare level especially in developing countries with minimal financial resources. Open-source technology is a solution to overcome the problems of high-costs and inflexibility associated with the proprietary health information systems.
GLOBALEHR provides brilliant chance of readily retrieving the required information for conducting a faster and a much more accurate decision for action. Decline in medical errors is another important advantage of applying GLOBALEHR that should seriously be taken into account. Open source GLOBALEHRs have been designed to improve health-care while reducing the cost of similar proprietary systems. Those who developed OSS actually encourage it and rely on this philosophy to see the software spread and grow beyond its original creators. According to the findings, open source GLOBALEHR systems have been wildly welcomed by source limited regions around the world, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and South America. Argentina, Australia, Chile, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Germany, Ghana, Haiti, Jordan, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Mexico, Mozambique, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, USA and Zimbabwe are among countries, which used open source GLOBALEHRs to enhance the health care quality. The results indicated that many countries especially developing countries- demand to use an interoperable and cost-efficient GLOBALEHR system, which is flexible enough to modify and improve.
CONCLUSION
Several projects on utilizing open source GlobalEHR in the world, especially in developing countries confirm the effective role of open source GlobalEHR systems in improving the healthcare level in countries with minimal financial resources.