Questions regarding the implementation of OpenLMIS in Angola's private sector - Appy Saúde

[Appy Developer]

Introduction: 

• Appy Saúde it's a free platform, available on web, iOS and Android, that connects Health Establishments in Angola to Consumers and regarding pharmaceutical products we noted that Pharmacies still need tools and local support to better manage their stock to reduce out-of-stock.
  
• We are contacting OpenLMIS, because we think it's possible to improve Pharmacies service level by providing online tools, with a local support team, which allow them to manage stock, get alerts and facilitate purchases orders from local Distributors.
  

Operational or technical:

• Could we use our servers to install and manage the database used by OpenLMIS?
  
• Does it allow us to change the database structure? For example, to add a new table or variable.
  
• Does it allow us to change or introduce a new feature? For example, start a requisition process based on online demand generated by our App. 
• Could we use our front-end to connect with OpenLMIS backend and database structure? If possible, we would like to use our own customized CSS for the frontend.
  

Shared Content:

• Do you have stored information (in Portuguese) about pharmaceutical products, such as, Name, Description, CNP/EAN/GTIN, photos, ATC code, Therapeutic indications, Contraindications, Side effects, Manufacturer, etc.
  
• Do you share this database? If yes, what are the conditions?

[Josh Zamor]

Welcome Appy,

I’ll get right to some quick answers:

Operational / technical:

• Can we install it locally?  Yes you can install OpenLMIS on your own servers.  See the Quick Setup and then take a look at our recommended deployment topology.
• Can we change the database schema?  Yes and no.  We have a microservice architecture that aims to always be upgradeable.  To that end each service has it’s own database(s), and access to that logical database schema is highly discouraged from outside the microservice that owns it.  That is to say that we have about 8 microservices today, each running their own logical database schema and oblivious that any of the other logical database schemas exist.  This architecture constraint shouldn’t cause you any problems as we’ve documented how we encourage additions to a service’s database (i.e. Extra Data) and how new Services can be introduced that work with existing services.  We also wrote up an example scenario for how our extension mechanisms can be used to add new functionality to OpenLMIS that you might find useful.
• Can we introduce a new feature?  Yes, our architecture is optimized for this by adding a new microservice and/or using one of the extension mechanisms.  Moreover each back-end service has a headless (no UI) REST-ful API served over HTTP w/ JSON.  All our API’s are documented on our Components page (see the live and static API docs of each service).
• Can we use our own front-end?  Yes, our front-end web UI is called the Reference UI and it’s meant to be just that, a Reference.  You can choose to use it, use your own, or customize it.  Most implementations choose to customize the CSS so you should find this well supported.

Shared Content:

• Stored content (e.g. Product descriptions) in Portuguese?  The short answer is that yes, we should for some Products that our implementer community should be able to help us with.  The longer answer is that Product descriptions and standardization (e.g. GS1 GTIN and Product Masters) is a focus of mine.  I’d be happy to discuss this with you.
• Do you share and what are the conditions?  All of our demo data is open and published.  The conditions for that data are pretty open and the same as our license.  The easiest way to see it is to just login to our test server (User administrator, password is password).  That said that demo data isn’t terribly interesting.  We do have an implementer community which might be able to help with this and the best place to ask for that specifically will likely be with the Product Committee.

I know there’s a Appy demo to the community later this week (which unfortunately I’ll be on a plane for) which sounds like a good time to get connected with the Product Committee so that you may start asking about shared content in the wider community.  Since I’ll miss the demo in person I’ll watch the recording, however I’d like to end for now by saying a collaboration sounds natural.  I’m in Tanzania at the moment working on Product identification and involving the pharmacies would fill a critical missing piece for most national health systems.  Moreover OpenLMIS v3 (latest version) is architected to be extended and used by other systems.  Our goal is governance through code, meaning we encourage others to use our architecture to extend the capabilities and own how that extension works within the community.  In tangible terms that might mean using our microservice template to spin up your own service giving you significant freedom to extend and shape how the system behaves.

Thanks for reaching out, I look forward to seeing what we can accomplish.

Best,

Josh

Josh Zamor
OpenLMIS Architect
josh....@openlmis.org  
SKYPE: josh.zamor.vr 
OpenLMIS.org  OpenLMIS Wiki

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