Open Source Software Development And Global Health
David Mason, IntraHealth’s Health Informatics Advisor, will discuss the Capacity Project’s work with open source software development at the Global Health Conference in Washington, DC, on May 29. Open source software is computer software that anyone can freely download, use and modify. This software can be distributed free of cost, and users can continue to use and improve their systems without paying onerous licensing or upgrade fees. Employing open source technologies provides access to a global support community, which, on a volunteer basis, can support the software, answer questions, fix bugs and even develop new modules.
Mason will focus on the IntraHealth-led Capacity Project’s experience in working with several countries and an international online community to create open source human resource information system (HRIS) software. He will explore how the ecosystem of open source development has worked and what it can lend to global health, with an emphasis on the need for proper licensing and using the right tools to share code with the rest of the world. He will also discuss how the transparency of ideas and a common knowledge pool within open source software development can become the starting point for community improvement.
The Capacity Project has developed and deployed open source HRIS software in a number of countries over the last three years. Each country’s HRIS development team has worked with a collective online community comprised of developers around the world, to help ensure sustainability. Mason’s presentation will include specific case examples along with statistics from the online community. The software packages Mason will discuss include:
- iHRIS Qualify—This system captures information about health professionals in the cadre from the time they enter pre-service training through registration or certification and licensure. The system can also track continuing education attained by health workers and out migration requests.
- iHRIS Manage—This system tracks more detailed information about health workers throughout their employment, including where they are deployed, salary history, promotions and transfers, performance and reasons for attrition.
- iHRIS Plan—This system analyzes data collected in other HRISs to enable decision makers to project their future workforce needs and make effective planning and policy decisions.