openEHR
openEHR is a UK non-profit that publishes open technical specifications, clinical archetypes, and open-source software enabling vendor-neutral, interoperable electronic health record platforms, serving healthcare providers, vendors, clinicians, and national health systems worldwide.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2003
- HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What openEHR does
openEHR is a UK-registered non-profit (operating as openEHR International, a Community Interest Company, with the openEHR Foundation holding the intellectual property) that publishes open technical specifications, domain-developed clinical models, and open-source software for electronic health record (EHR) platforms. Founded in 2003 and headquartered in London, the organization maintains a small staff (1–10 employees) and is governed by member-elected directors. Its technical portfolio comprises the openEHR Reference Model, the archetype formalism (ADL/AOM, an ISO standard), the Archetype Query Language (AQL), and the ITS-REST API specifications, all published under Creative Commons licenses. The Clinical Knowledge Manager (CKM) serves as the governance and lifecycle repository for archetypes, templates, and terminology bindings (SNOMED CT, LOINC).
The core architectural innovation is the dual-model approach that separates clinical knowledge (archetypes and templates authored by clinicians) from software implementation, enabling domain professionals to define clinical content directly and allowing interoperability to emerge as an architectural consequence. Multiple openEHR-compliant platforms (EHRbase, Better Platform, DIPS Arena, HIP CDR, OceanEHR, EHRServer, Atomik) are built and maintained by a global community of vendors and research institutions.
Revenue is generated exclusively through membership fees from individual, professional, industry, and organization members; specifications, software, and clinical models are freely distributed at no cost. Adoption has reached national scale in several markets, with DIPS EPR running in 73% of Norwegian hospitals across five of seven university hospitals serving 57,000 professional users, and ongoing transformation programmes in Catalonia and NHS Wales. The organization maintains strategic partnerships with SNOMED International (formal licensing agreement renewed to end of 2029) and HL7, and engages with WHO, OECD, and the European Health Data Space initiative. Its annual EHRCON conference rotates across European cities and serves as the principal industry gathering point.
openEHR firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- openEHR
- Legal name
- openEHR International (CIC)
- Website
- https://openehr.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2003
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- openEHR is a UK non-profit that publishes open technical specifications, clinical archetypes, and open-source software enabling vendor-neutral, interoperable electronic health record platforms, serving healthcare providers, vendors, clinicians, and national health systems worldwide.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
openEHR industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Health IT Interoperability Standards
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Interoperability Standards, Profiles & Implementation (HL7/FHIR/IHE) (HLACABAA)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- EHR/EMR Integration & Interoperability Middleware (HL7/FHIR) (HLALAKAD), EHR Extensions, APIs, App Marketplaces & SMART-on-FHIR Apps (HLACAAAN), Healthcare Terminology, Ontology & Code Set Management (SNOMED/LOINC/ICD/RxNorm) (HLACAIAF)
Keywords
Where openEHR is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- London
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
openEHR business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others
Revenue model
- Membership Fees: openEHR International operates as a member-owned Community Interest Company. Revenue is generated through subscribing members from individual, industry, and organizational groups who pay membership fees to support governance and operations.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels10 records
openEHR product offering
Product offeringCore offering
openEHR is a non-profit organisation that publishes open technical specifications for an electronic health record (EHR) platform along with domain-developed clinical models. Deliverables include the Reference Model, the Archetype formalism (ADL/AOM, an ISO standard), the Archetype Query Language (AQL), REST API specifications (ITS-REST), and the hosted Clinical Knowledge Manager used to govern archetypes, templates, and terminology bindings including SNOMED CT and LOINC.
Product overview
openEHR is a non-profit organisation that publishes technical standards for an EHR platform, along with domain-developed clinical models. The portfolio consists of: (1) Technical specifications including the Reference Model, Archetype Model, and formal query language AQL for archetype-based repositories; (2) REST API specifications (ITS-REST) for EHR management, querying, and definitions; (3) Clinical Knowledge Manager (CKM) for governance of archetypes and templates; (4) SDK libraries in multiple languages; (5) Multiple openEHR-compliant platforms including EHRbase, EHRServer, Better Platform, HIP CDR, and others built by the community; (6) Annual conferences (EHRCON). The layered ecosystem separates clinical knowledge from software implementation enabling interoperable, maintainable health systems.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Archetype Query Language (AQL) Declarative query language specification designed for searching and retrieving data in archetype-based repositories; supports SELECT, FROM, WHERE, ORDER BY, and LIMIT clauses with archetype path syntax and integrates with external terminology services such as SNOMED CT and FHIR terminology.
- Query API (openEHR REST API / ITS-REST) REST API specification for querying openEHR systems using AQL. Supports single EHR queries, population queries, stored queries (identified by qualified name and version), and ad-hoc queries with parameterised execution, paging via offset, and row limits via fetch; documented via OpenAPI Specification v3.0.3.
- EHR API (ITS-REST) REST API specification for interacting with openEHR EHR systems in a RESTful manner, enabling retrieval and management of EHR-level resources in compliant platforms.
- Definition API (ITS-REST) REST API specification for managing openEHR definitions including archetypes, templates, and operational templates (OPTs) used across compliant platforms.
- Clinical Knowledge Manager (CKM) Hosted repository and governance platform for managing the full lifecycle of archetypes, templates, and terminology bindings (including SNOMED CT and LOINC); supports review, approval, versioning, and publishing workflows for clinical content maintained by the global openEHR community.
- openEHR Specifications Site Official specifications.openehr.org site that publishes the openEHR Reference Model, Archetype Model (ADL/AOM), Archetype Query Language (AQL), REST API (ITS-REST), and related documentation under Creative Commons licensing.
- openEHR SDK Libraries Software development kits in multiple programming languages (Java, .NET, Python, JavaScript) for working with archetypes, templates, compositions, and openEHR APIs; includes UI component libraries and integration adapters for building compliant applications.
- openEHR Modelling Tools Clinical modelling environments including archetype editors and template designers for creating and refining archetypes and templates, with validation tools and CI utilities targeted at clinical informaticians.
Quantifiable outcome
- 73% of Norwegian hospitals use openEHR-based DIPS EPR systems with 57,000 professional users
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use openEHR
Customer profileNamed customers4 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
openEHR technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration10 records
AI capability3 records
Feature5 records
openEHR partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Ten partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- SNOMED InternationalcoreFormal agreement for use of SNOMED CT terminology in openEHR artefacts. Original partnership in April 2017, renewed for five years from end of 2024. openEHR includes SNOMED CT concept codes, value set references, and ref set references in archetypes and templates.
- HL7coreopenEHR and HL7 expanded global interoperability collaboration in Dublin, advancing technical alignment, governance, education, policy and tooling for worldwide healthcare interoperability.
- EHRBasecoreEHRBase is an open source software backend for clinical application systems. Main contributors are vitagroup, ADOC Software Development Co., and Peter L. Reichertz Institute for Medical Informatics (Hannover Medical School). Provides REST API access to openEHR data.
- vitagroupcoreGerman health IT company and main contributor to EHRBase. Also provides HIP CDR (Clinical Data Repository) built on openEHR framework and HIP EHRbase enterprise backend.
- BettercoreSlovenian company providing Better Platform, a big-data, high-performance solution for storing, managing, querying and exchanging structured EHR data based on openEHR specifications.
- Ocean Health SystemscoreProvides OceanEHR eHealth platform - a proven, highly available, scalable, standards-based environment for modern electronic health records built on openEHR.
- DIPScoreNorwegian company providing DIPS Arena and DIPS EPR - robust electronic patient record system running in 73% of Norwegian hospitals across 5 of 7 university hospitals, serving 57,000 professional users.
- CaboLabscoreUruguayan company providing EHRServer - open source, service-oriented openEHR clinical data repository with REST API. Also provides openEHR SDK and openEHR Toolkit.
- Peter L. Reichertz Institute for Medical Informatics (Hannover Medical School)coreResearch institute at Hannover Medical School, Germany, and contributor to EHRBase open source project.
- ADOC Software Development Co.coreSoftware development company and contributor to EHRBase open source project.
Scale indicators2 records
Recent moves8 records
Expansion highlights5 records
openEHR competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- InterSystems (HealthShare): Established health data platform vendor with HealthShare, providing interoperability, FHIR-based exchange, and unified health records. Comparable as a broad incumbent addressing the same clinical interoperability and data integration problems that openEHR targets, but with a commercial, proprietary stack.
- Epic Systems: Largest US-based EHR vendor whose systems dominate hospital EHR deployments. A broad incumbent shaping healthcare interoperability through proprietary platforms (Care Everywhere, Cosmos) and increasingly via FHIR APIs; the dominant commercial alternative to openEHR-style open platforms in many national procurements.
Direct peers
- SNOMED International: Maintains the SNOMED CT clinical terminology standard. Highly comparable to openEHR as a non-profit, member-funded healthcare terminology/standards organization with a similar governance model and overlapping community of implementers and integrators.
- IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise): International initiative that promotes the coordinated use of established standards such as DICOM, HL7, and FHIR to support interoperability in healthcare. A peer standards body addressing the same clinical interoperability problem space as openEHR, often used in combination with its specifications.
- Better: Slovenian health IT company providing the Better Platform, a high-performance openEHR-based clinical data repository. Comparable as a commercial vendor commercialising openEHR specifications for storing and exchanging structured EHR data, with the CEO also serving as openEHR Co-Chair.
- LOINC (Regenstrief Institute): Maintains the universal code system for identifying health measurements, observations, and documents. Comparable to openEHR as a non-profit health data standard with open licensing, used together with openEHR for terminology bindings (e.g., SNOMED CT, LOINC) in archetype-based systems.
- Ocean Health Systems: Australian health informatics company founded by openEHR leadership and offering OceanEHR, a cloud-based EHR platform built on openEHR. Direct peer as a long-standing commercial openEHR vendor with deep involvement in specification development.
- HL7 International (FHIR): Global standards body for health information exchange and the principal alternative interoperability framework (FHIR). Most directly comparable to openEHR as a competing/complementary standards organization serving the same healthcare IT ecosystem, often deployed alongside openEHR in national architectures.
- DIPS: Norwegian health IT company whose DIPS Arena and DIPS EPR run on openEHR specifications in 73% of Norwegian hospitals. Closest reference deployment of openEHR at scale, making DIPS the canonical commercial proof point for openEHR.
Emerging players
- EHRBase: Open source openEHR-compliant clinical data repository maintained by vitagroup, ADOC, and Hannover Medical School. Comparable as a community-driven openEHR implementation that competes with vendor offerings like Better Platform and HIP CDR.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
openEHR social profiles
Digital presenceopenEHR financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
openEHR leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles12 records
openEHR funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
openEHR M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about openEHR
What does openEHR do?
openEHR is a non-profit organisation that publishes open technical specifications for an electronic health record (EHR) platform along with domain-developed clinical models. Deliverables include the Reference Model, the Archetype formalism (ADL/AOM, an ISO standard), the Archetype Query Language (AQL), REST API specifications (ITS-REST), and the hosted Clinical Knowledge Manager used to govern archetypes, templates, and terminology bindings including SNOMED CT and LOINC.
Is openEHR a public or private company?
openEHR is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was openEHR founded?
openEHR was founded in 2003. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is openEHR based?
openEHR is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does openEHR make money?
One revenue line is on record: membership Fees.
Who are openEHR's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are InterSystems (HealthShare) and Epic Systems. Direct peers are SNOMED International, IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise), Better, LOINC (Regenstrief Institute), Ocean Health Systems, HL7 International (FHIR) and DIPS. EHRBase is listed as an emerging player.
Does openEHR have an API?
Yes. openEHR provides a REST API (ITS-REST) for EHR management, querying, and definitions. The primary query language is AQL (Archetype Query Language). The Query API supports single EHR queries (using ehr_id parameter or openEHR-EHR-id header) and population queries across multiple EHRs. It supports both ad-hoc queries (executed as-is) and stored queries (identified by qualified name and version). Query parameters include offset for paging, fetch for row limits, and custom query_parameters for placeholder replacement. The API is documented via OpenAPI Specification v3.0.3. Developer documentation is at specifications.openehr.org/releases/ITS-REST/latest.
What industry is openEHR in?
openEHR's product category is Health IT Interoperability Standards. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HLACABAA, Interoperability Standards, Profiles & Implementation (HL7/FHIR/IHE), with a secondary code of HLALAKAD, EHR/EMR Integration & Interoperability Middleware (HL7/FHIR). Its NAICS code is 5182 and its SIC code is 7372.