A surprise hit at this year’s SCALE expo in Los Angeles was a presentation by a Dentist from Scotland who had come to DOCHS last year to learn more about open source software for healthcare. After becoming dissatisfied by his proprietary practice management software, he decided to create his own open source solution – and become his own, one-man open source project! The result was Open Molar: http://openmolar.wikidot.com/start
– And it all started at the DOCHS conference.

It was amazing to see the progress achieved in such a short amount of time. The audio of Neil’s presentation was just posted at the SCALE site – the slides are still to be posted: http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale8x/presentations/get-developing-its-easy

I couldn’t do it justice in describing the project briefly here – I recommend you view the excellent presentation that hits on all the points of developing a healthcare project from the viewpoint of a determined health practitioner.

Perhaps there is a need to start a yearly chutzpah award? It is definitely an inspirational story. In true open source tradition, the project even has its own clever logo – the Molar Man.