We intend that Synapse EMR will no longer be free to use, but will shift to a shareware model of use. However, this model will be a little different from the usual shareware model. If you use Synapse, and you are a clinical user ie. not a receptionist, then the suggested shareware donation is the gross average fee your clinic earns from seeing a followup patient monthly. Clearly this differs depending upon where you are, which country and so forth. Shareware donations may be made to sales @ compkarori.co.nz via paypal. If you would like a recurring invoice, then this can be arranged by contacting us by using the contact form. If, however, you are just starting out and are unable to afford this small fee, then in return for using Synapse, we could like 15 - 30 mins of your time ( ie. the same time you would have spent with that follow up patient ) once a month contributing to the user documentation at the wiki. This can be in english or whatever language you are most familiar with. If this means translating existing documentation into your own language, that is also acceptable. If you chose to do neither, Synapse will not suddenly stop working ... such is the nature of shareware,
My initial reaction is : That's too cheap ! I'm not sure what to suggest for the future. One thing that sticks out in my mind is: If we get auto-filing working well, and some other killer features working well that really <u>no other</u> EMR has ... the price is too cheap FOR SURE ! I see we are in some sort of in between stage ...... Will have to think about it.
Part of the reason for the coming change is to try and build a stronger community of users. We can't have a community where by the majority of users don't post, and don't contribute to documentation etc. If they don't feel capable of doing those things, then they can contribute financially to help pay for hosting costs, data transfer and the costs of hiring programmers. Others who don't wish to contribute financially yet can allocate 30 - 60 seconds a day ( 15 - 30 mins per month ) to improve the documentation.
Re: Change in Synapse EMR's licensing To explain this further, we propose that Synapse EMR will be available under a dual license. Shareware - everyone understands this concept, but in brief, you are free to download and trial this software. However, if you wish to use it ( in your practice), you must pay a fee. Normally this fee is fixed, and does not take into account the differences in economies between first world countries and emerging countries. We do however recognize this, and are fixing the monthly fee at whatever your gross fee is for a patient follow up. So, for instance, if your average fee in India is US$1.10 for a routine consultation, then you owe us US$1.10 a month. If, however, you practice in the USA, and your routine consultation fee is US$50, then you owe us US$50 a month. Workware - in exchange for the use of Synapse EMR, we will instead accept some micro work as payment. This work should be equivalent in time to the time spent on a routine consultation, and should in some way help the Synapse community. This non-exclusive list includes: sending in new bug reports ( with comprehensive instructions on how to reproduce the bug ) answering questions for assistance on this or other forums discussing Synapse EMR suggesting new functionality with sufficient detail to implement it creating new documentation on the wiki where there are deficiencies creating videos on how you use Synapse and making these available creating templates and sharing them creating chronic disease views and sharing them creating PDF forms and sharing them translating existing documentation to another language blogging on your experience with Synapse So, if your routine consultation takes 15 minutes, we ask for 30 seconds per day, or 15 minutes of your time per month in one of above tasks.
Re: Change in Synapse EMR's licensing Good Idea. How about voluntarily taking on tasks so that there is no duplication of effort esp in making videos or templates. Would be still better if these are pooled in first and then published.
Re: Change in Synapse EMR's licensing Sure, people can state what they're working on so that others don't duplicate. Just start a thread ...
Re: Change in Synapse EMR's licensing I volunteer for "Examination of the Musculoskeletal system Templates"
