This Thursday at Change, Darius Jazayeri will be discussing his work on OpenMRS Our world continues to be ravaged by pandemics of epic proportions, as over 40 million people are infected with or diseases such as HIV/AIDS, multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, and malaria — most (up to 95%) of these afflictions are present in developing countries. Prevention and treatment interventions on this scale require efficient information management, which is critical as clinical care must increasingly be entrusted to less skilled providers. Whether for lack of time, developers, or money, most health care programs in developing countries manage their information with simple spreadsheets or small, poorly designed databases…if anything at all. To help them, we need to find a way not only to improve management tools, but also to reduce unnecessary, duplicative efforts. As a response to these challenges, the Open Medical Record System (OpenMRS®) formed in 2004 as a open source medical record system platform for developing countries. OpenMRS is a multi-institution, nonprofit collaborative led by Regenstrief Institute, Inc., a world-renowned leader in medical informatics research, and Partners In Health, a Boston-based philanthropic organization with a focus on improving the lives of underprivileged people worldwide through health care service and advocacy. OpenMRS is a software platform and a reference application which enables design of a customized medical records system with no programming knowledge (although medical and systems analysis knowledge is required). It is a common platform upon which medical informatics efforts in developing countries can be built. To date, OpenMRS has been implemented in twenty countries throughout the world, including South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania, Haiti, India, China, United States, Pakistan, and the Phillipines. This work is supported in part by organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), The Rockefeller Foundation, and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). What: Darius Jazayeri on OpenMRS When: Thursday, June 3rd at noon Where: Paul Allen Center, Room 203