FreeMED

FreeMED
Developer(s)	FreeMED Software Foundation
Initial release	1999
Repository	github.com/freemed/freemed
Written in	PHP
Operating system	Cross-platform
Available in	Multilingual [1]
Type	Medical Software
License	GNU General Public License
Website	www.freemed.info

Last updated October 26, 2019

FreeMED is an open source electronic medical record system based on Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP (commonly referred to as LAMP).

Linux Family of free and open-source software operating systems based on the Linux kernel

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution.

The Apache HTTP Server, colloquially called Apache, is free and open-source cross-platform web server software, released under the terms of Apache License 2.0. Apache is developed and maintained by an open community of developers under the auspices of the Apache Software Foundation.

MySQL is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Its name is a combination of "My", the name of co-founder Michael Widenius's daughter, and "SQL", the abbreviation for Structured Query Language.

History

The FreeMED project was officially started in 1999 by Jeffrey Buchbinder of Willimantic, Connecticut, United States.

FreeMED is a direct descendant of AMOS, a Pascal/DBase program which was created in 1983 before the widespread use of relational databases and object oriented programming.

The pascal is the SI derived unit of pressure used to quantify internal pressure, stress, Young's modulus and ultimate tensile strength. The unit, named after Blaise Pascal, is defined as one newton per square metre. The unit of measurement called standard atmosphere (atm) is defined as 101325 Pa.

dBase was one of the first database management systems for microcomputers, and the most successful in its day. The dBase system includes the core database engine, a query system, a forms engine, and a programming language that ties all of these components together. dBase's underlying file format, the .dbf file, is widely used in applications needing a simple format to store structured data.

A relational database is a digital database based on the relational model of data, as proposed by E. F. Codd in 1970. A software system used to maintain relational databases is a relational database management system (RDBMS). Many relational database systems have an option of using the SQL for querying and maintaining the database.

FreeMED is currently hosted by the FreeMED Software Foundation, with downloads hosted by Sourceforge.

It uses Subversion as a Concurrent versioning system, which it has used since it was migrated from CVS in 2005.

Architecture

Languages

FreeMED is mainly written in PHP, and makes heavy use of SQL, favoring the MySQL database engine. It also uses some bash, Perl, and small pieces written in other languages. Its interface is primarily web-based, but web services interfaces, such as XML-RPC, are also available.

PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor is a general-purpose programming language originally designed for web development. It was originally created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994; the PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group. PHP originally stood for Personal Home Page, but it now stands for the recursive initialism PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.

Perl is a family of two high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming languages. "Perl" refers to Perl 5, but from 2000 to 2019 it also referred to its redesigned "sister language", Perl 6, before the latter's name was officially changed to Raku in October 2019.

XML-RPC is a remote procedure call (RPC) protocol which uses XML to encode its calls and HTTP as a transport mechanism.

Modular Electronic Medical Record

FreeMED stores and represents its medical data as a group of "modules", which consist of a database model and a user interfaces. Each of the disparate modules is then virtually connected together by means of relational database table fields referencing other modules and basic patient demographics. This allows FreeMED to add and remove core database functionality by adding and removing modules without having to reprogram its interface.

External Billing System (REMITT)

FreeMED uses an external billing program called REMITT (REMITT Electronic Medical Record Information Translation and Transmission). The name "REMITT" is a Recursive acronym.^[2] It communicates with REMITT via an authenticated XML-RPC connection. This connection, once established, allows the transmission of medical billing data as a monolithic chunk of XML. This is then processed into a meta-format via XSLT, and finally processed into its final format and transmitted to its ultimate destination.

Medical billing is a payment practice within the United States health system. The process involves a healthcare provider submitting, following up on, and appealing claims with health insurance companies in order to receive payment for services rendered; such as testing, treatments, and procedures. The same process is used for most insurance companies, whether they are private companies or government sponsored programs: Medical coding reports what the diagnosis and treatment were, and prices are applied accordingly. Medical billers are encouraged, but not required by law, to become certified by taking an exam such as the CMRS Exam, RHIA Exam, CPB Exam and others. Certification schools are intended to provide a theoretical grounding for students entering the medical billing field. Some community colleges in the United States offer certificates, or even associate degrees, in the field. Those seeking advancement may be cross-trained in medical coding or transcription or auditing, and may earn a bachelor's or graduate degree in medical information science and technology.

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eXist-db is an open source software project for NoSQL databases built on XML technology. It is classified as both a NoSQL document-oriented database system and a native XML database. Unlike most relational database management systems (RDBMS) and NoSQL databases, eXist-db provides XQuery and XSLT as its query and application programming languages.

LAMP is an archetypal model of web service stacks, named as an acronym of the names of its original four open-source components: the Linux operating system, the Apache HTTP Server, the MySQL relational database management system (RDBMS), and the PHP programming language. The LAMP components are largely interchangeable and not limited to the original selection. As a solution stack, LAMP is suitable for building dynamic web sites and web applications.

Entity–attribute–value model (EAV) is a data model to encode, in a space-efficient manner, entities where the number of attributes that can be used to describe them is potentially vast, but the number that will actually apply to a given entity is relatively modest. Such entities correspond to the mathematical notion of a sparse matrix.

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References

↑ See FreeMED Translation Site Archived March 10, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
↑ "REMITT" . Retrieved 10 July 2017.

External links

FreeMED wiki on Github
FreeMED Software Foundation
FreeMED Support Group
FreeMED Development Group
FreeMED Demonstration Site
"FreeMED Translation". Archived from the original on 10 March 2009.

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[1] See FreeMED Translation Site Archived March 10, 2009, at the Wayback Machine

[2] "REMITT" . Retrieved 10 July 2017.