O3 Internet Connection FAQs

Many implementers have questions about using OpenMRS 3 in places with different levels of internet: from great connectivity, to some connectivity with occasional power outages, to low/no connectivity.

Here are a variety of common questions we hear:

1 Can OpenMRS be used in a place with no internet?
2 Can OpenMRS be used within a facility’s own network, i.e. Local Area Network (LAN)?
3 Can OpenMRS be hosted on a Cloud, e.g. our organization Intranet, a Government cloud, or a third-party cloud service provider like AWS?
4 What if the internet goes down? Can OpenMRS handle switching from cloud useage to local storage during down-time?
5 Can OpenMRS 3 be used for offline Community Outreach, such as by Community Health Workers (CHWs) doing remote patient outreach?

Can OpenMRS be used in a place with no internet?

Yes! OpenMRS v3 can be used in a place without internet as long as it is set up on a local device.
For example, we often see implementers in very low resource settings using laptops where the device can provide both it’s own memory and battery/power-source.

Can OpenMRS be used within a facility’s own network, i.e. Local Area Network (LAN)?

Yes, OpenMRS v3 can function in a facility with a LAN, even without cloud internet.
As of July 2024, we are working on adding support for O3 to also handle flaky LAN or WAN connections, which will likely be included in a 3.3+ release of OpenMRS 3.

Can OpenMRS be hosted on a Cloud, e.g. our organization Intranet, a Government cloud, or a third-party cloud service provider like AWS?

Yes, OpenMRS v3 can be hosted on a cloud server.

What if the internet goes down? Can OpenMRS handle switching from cloud useage to local storage during down-time?

Yes. When the internet goes down, you can switch to a local device. Once the internet is restored, the local device can update the central cloud-hosted database.
This process can be automated to simplify configuration without needing to set up database replication processes.

Can OpenMRS 3 be used for offline Community Outreach, such as by Community Health Workers (CHWs) doing remote patient outreach?

We recommend integrating with a dedicated CHW app for community health worker activities. For more details, see the CHW App section of the OpenMRS Integration Catalogue at this link.
There was previous work done to enable "Offline Community Outreach" using O3 on tablets, but this is no longer maintained. Since there are many CHW App solutions in the open source Global Goods marketplace, we try to focus on our core competency of in-clinic workflows.