Healthcare Turns to Open Source Software
by Glen Doss
A growing number of healthcare organizations have turned to open source software to help manage their websites. Open source software is a collection of tools and technologies that are free to use, modify, and share. Two of the most popular open source platforms are the Drupal and WordPress content management systems. Both platforms have experienced rapid growth within the healthcare industry.
The explosive growth of Drupal
In 2009 the White House’s official website (www.Whitehouse.gov) switched to Drupal, which marked a watershed moment in the adoption of this open source content management system, or CMS, platform. Soon, other high-profile government agencies – including the departments of Education, Energy, and Transportation – followed suit. Similarly in healthcare, early Drupal adopters, such as Cooper University Health Care, helped pave the way for other leading organizations – including St. Louis Children’s Hospital, University of Michigan Health System, Florida Hospital, George Washington University Hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, UMass Memorial Health Care, Loyola Medicine, and NYU Langone Medical Center – to move to Drupal. More than 1 million websites are powered by Drupal.
“We moved to Drupal because we thought it would give us the most flexibility to grow and evolve at our own pace,” says John Odom, senior coordinator and webmaster at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. “The platform’s flexibility has helped us to meet the needs of our internal clients more efficiently and implement strategies that have contributed to unprecedented business growth through our site.”
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