Tim Cook writes that FreePM (Free Practice Management) 0.8.0b is out: The highlights are; a much improved template management system, posting of patient charges from actions in the EMR, encounter audit code generation (more about this later), basic scheduling, ICD coding from the templates (details about this will be discussed on the FreePM list)…FreePM 0.8.0 was installed on the demo site and packages are ready for download from
http://www.freepm.org:8080/freepm_download The changes and current implementation plan may be read here. He also has some things to say about CPT codes and open source below.

** Again, the demo has reduced security protection. If you find a
function that does not execute properly it is probably because of a proxy setting I missed on the demo site. Please report it to the list and I will change it.

** About Reporting **
Any data in FreePM maybe extracted via pdf reports. After you install FreePM you simply add instances of ZpdfDocument via the management interface. If you need help with this please bring it up on the FreePM list. I plan to replace ZpdfDocument with the much more powerful ReportLab package before the 1.0 release This will allow extensive graphing functions as well.

** A WORD ABOUT CPT CODES **
I have discovered that many people do not realize that CPT codes are not available for free. It has not been determined to what extent an opensource project can use them under the Fair Use Act (this mostly covers journalists). So, I have used a very few in the demo, they are called charge_codes in FreePM. If you subscribe to the AMA’s CPT codes you may input them into the charge tables (fee schedules). Commercial support for FreePM from Free Practice Management, Inc. will include these codes.