Google Season of Docs Project Proposal

From OpenEMR Project Wiki
Revision as of 00:43, 16 March 2023 by Elaughlin (talk | contribs) (→‎Scope)

Create Getting Started Guide for New Users- OpenEMR

The OpenEMR community is submitting an application for the 2023 Google Season of Docs (GSoD).

About OpenEMR

Around the globe, medical practices in countries such as Kenya and Argentina help make OpenEMR one of the most popular open-source electronic health record (EHR) solutions. Our broad feature set includes patient demographics, appointments, prescriptions, billing, reports, clinical decision support, lab integration, and free support. ONC Certified with leadership from active board members, we strive to be a superior alternative to our proprietary counterparts.

OpenEMR was developed by medical providers, for medical providers. It is maintained and supported by a vibrant community of volunteers and professionals, including several hundred contributors and more than 40 companies. Since its release in 2002, OpenEMR has been used by facilities in more than 100 countries and translated into 34 languages. Over 100,000 medical providers serving more than 200 million patients are estimated to use OpenEMR. Open-source software has changed the world for the better, and OpenEMR is a prime example. We are committed to the education of students in the fields of open source software and EHRs, and would love the chance to expand our impact through Google Season of Docs.

Check us Out

For more information about OpenEMR, please visit the following links:


OpenEMR's Google Season of Docs (GSoD) 2023 Project

Problem Statement

Existing documentation has a wealth of information, ranging from project tools to manuals, but is difficult for new users to navigate. The onboarding experience is unclear, so the documentation mainly functions as a reference. Potential contributors and clinics invest time trying to find information on the wiki, open issues on GitHub and/or the Forum to get help, or give up altogether. It is particularly difficult for technical writers to identify how they can help.

Welcoming more contributors and clinics will help OpenEMR grow, increasing its impact on healthcare around the world!

Scope

The OpenEMR project will:

  • Conduct an audience analysis to better understand OpenEMR users and their diverse needs.
  • With the needs of each user in mind, audit existing documentation and identify areas for improvement.
  • Solicit feedback about existing documentation via a survey.
  • Create a "getting started guide" that is useful for new users, easy to follow, and comprehensive.
    • We plan to address the unique needs of each user independently, so users won't become overwhelmed or distracted by irrelevant information.
    • Where possible, we will encourage the user to learn by doing.
  • Establish a process for keeping the "getting started guide" up-to-date.
  • Analyze survey results and prioritize areas of improvement that have not been addressed yet.
    • We anticipate some areas of improvement will already be addressed from the development of the "getting started guide."
    • We plan to prioritize improvements that benefit both new and current users, have a large impact, and are feasible within the remaining time left in the project.
  • Implement as many improvements as possible.
  • Create a list of unaddressed improvements that can easily be found by users who want to help with documentation.
  • Solicit feedback about the entire documentation package by re-releasing the original survey.
    • May add some additional questions about the new documentation as well.

Work that is out of scope for this project:

  • Social media engagement.
  • Resolving new bugs that are discovered while working on documentation.
    • Issues will be documented in GitHub so they can be resolved outside the GSoD timeline.

Measuring Success

Survey Goal

  • We will meet our survey goal if we see a 20% increase in the overall satisfaction score between the pre- and post- GSoD survey results. If we see a 60% increase, we will smash this goal!

New Documentation Goal

  • By the end of the project, we will have a "getting started guide" that addresses the needs of at least 3 different OpenEMR users.

New User Engagement Goal

  • [We will meet our engagement goal if the number of new contributors increases by 10% over a 3 month period. An increase of 20% would be a huge success!] - note: revision of proposed metric

Timeline

Milestone Action Items Dates
1: Determine the baseline Conduct audience analysis, audit existing documentation, and develop and release documentation survey April 17th - June 5th
2: Develop "getting started guide" Create a "getting started guide", establish process to keep "getting started guide" up-to-date June 6th - July 17th
3: Synthesize improvements Analyze survey results and prioritize improvements, implement improvements, document unaddressed improvements, re-release original survey July 18rd - July 30th
4: Analyze Outcomes Re-release original survey, compare pre- and post-project survey results July 31st - Aug 7th


Project Budget

Item Amount ($) Notes
Technical Writer 8,800 10 hours/week for 16 weeks
Volunteer Stipends 1,000 2 stipends at $500 each
Total 9,800

Unclaimed expenses will be re-invested into new development efforts such as hybrid inpatient/outpatient support.

Additional Information

Previous experience with technical writers or documentation

Currently, multiple community members are working on documentation for OpenEMR. Active efforts include creating a technical manual for a new module and writing an overview of the OpenEMR interface. Members working on these projects have been very supportive of the technical writer so far, including patiently answering numerous questions. The technical writer is encouraged by resources such as these because they will help ensure this project is beneficial to the OpenEMR community.


Previous participation in Google Season of Docs, Google Summer of Code or others

OpenEMR participated in the Google Summer of Code program in 2020 and had a fantastic experience! We found it incredibly rewarding to mentor students and were impressed by their achievements in such a short time period. Student projects included designing and integrating a hybrid mobile application, modernizing the underlying codebase, and improving OpenEMR's interoperability. Working with these students reinforced our desire to recruit new members and apply to similar programs, such as GSoD. Please see the following link for a celebration of the students' accomplishments: https://www.open-emr.org/blog/openemrs-gsoc-2020-resounding-success/

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