Open Concept Lab
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2012
- Headquarters—
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Open Concept Lab does
Open Concept Lab (OCL) is an open-source terminology management platform founded in 2012 and operated by Open Concept Lab LLC, a private US entity headquartered in Boston. OCL provides a cloud-hosted, FHIR-enabled toolkit for the collaborative management, publication, and use of standardized and local healthcare terminologies. The platform's flagship products are OCL Online (cloud-hosted shared instance at app.openconceptlab.org pre-loaded with LOINC, SNOMED-GPS, ICD-10, and CIEL), OCL TermBrowser (web interface for browsing and authoring terminology with side-by-side comparison and FHIR exports), OCL Terminology Service (Python/Django REST API with PostgreSQL and OpenSearch running on AWS Docker containers), and OCL Mapper (an Early Access mapping tool with ScispaCy-LOINC biomedical NLP for automated LOINC mapping). All code is released under Mozilla Public License v2.
OCL serves national health authorities and ministries of health — notably Ethiopia, Kenya, and through HL7 Brasil — alongside OpenMRS implementers, terminologists, and health-IT developers working on FHIR-based semantic interoperability. The go-to-market is community-led and product-led: a free cloud tier with self-host options for high-volume transactions, paired with strategic co-development partnerships with the World Health Organization, HL7 International, PEPFAR DATIM, Apelon, Regenstrief, and Digital Square. Revenue mechanics mix freemium cloud subscriptions with self-hosted enterprise deployments, supplemented by non-dilutive infrastructure support through the AWS Health Equity Initiative. The organization carries a Digital Public Good designation from the UN-backed Digital Public Goods Alliance and is led by Executive Director Jonathan Payne with a 5-person team.
Open Concept Lab firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Open Concept Lab
- Legal name
- Open Concept Lab LLC
- Website
- https://openconceptlab.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2012
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Open Concept Lab industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Healthcare Terminology Management
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (5132), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Computer Systems Design Services (541512)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Healthcare Terminology, Ontology & Code Set Management (SNOMED/LOINC/ICD/RxNorm) (HLACAIAF)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Terminology Services & Semantic Interoperability (SNOMED/LOINC/RxNorm mapping) (HLACABAJ), Interoperability Standards, Profiles & Implementation (HL7/FHIR/IHE) (HLACABAA), EHR Extensions, APIs, App Marketplaces & SMART-on-FHIR Apps (HLACAAAN)
Keywords
Open Concept Lab business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Personnel, Operations
Revenue model
- Cloud-hosted OCL Online: Free user accounts for basic cloud-hosted terminology management with collaborative features. Premium tiers likely for higher volume transactional support and enterprise features. Revenue derived from cloud service subscriptions and potentially premium support.
- Self-hosted Enterprise Deployments: Organizations requiring high-volume data exchange transactions can self-host OCL. Revenue may come from professional services, implementation support, and enterprise licensing for organizations needing dedicated infrastructure.
- Enterprise Account Services: Organizations using OCL Services for their users agree to Privacy Policy on behalf of that organization. Financial qualification, billing information, and optional company data collected for enterprise account management.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free cloud-hosted OCL Online |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels8 records
Open Concept Lab product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Open Concept Lab provides an open-source, cloud-based terminology management platform for healthcare interoperability. It offers tools (OCL Online, TermBrowser, Terminology Service, and Mapper) for collaboratively managing, publishing, and using standardized healthcare terminologies including LOINC, SNOMED, ICD-10, and CIEL with FHIR-compliant APIs. The platform is designed for national health authorities, ministries of health, and OpenMRS implementers, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Product overview
Open Concept Lab is an open-source, cloud-based terminology management platform offering a suite of integrated tools for managing, publishing, and using healthcare terminologies. The core products are OCL Online (cloud-hosted platform), OCL TermBrowser (web interface for searching and browsing terminology), OCL Terminology Service (core REST API powering all tools), and OCL Mapper (automated terminology mapping tool). These tools are designed to work together as a unified toolkit: the Terminology Service serves as the backend API, the TermBrowser provides the user-facing web interface, OCL Online hosts the integrated platform in the cloud, and the Mapper enables automated mapping of local data to standardized codes. OCL is community-driven, standards-based (supporting HL7 FHIR, LOINC, SNOMED CT, ICD-10, CIEL), and LMIC-focused.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- OCL Online: Cloud-based online instance for hosting terminology service needs without needing to download software to a private server.
- OCL TermBrowser
- OCL Terminology Service
- OCL Mapper
- OCL FHIR Core
- OpenMRS Dictionary Manager
Products and services
- OCL Online Cloud-hosted instance of OCL's terminology management tools enabling collaborative management, publication, and use of terminology resources alongside the global community. Provides access to major reference terminologies without requiring local server infrastructure. Free user accounts available with premium capabilities for enterprise use.
- OCL TermBrowser Primary web interface for searching and browsing healthcare terminology and metadata loaded into OCL. Features intuitive navigation, content searching, side-by-side comparison, download/export in FHIR format, customized views, custom filtering, basic authoring for administrators, and connection to SVCM-compatible servers. Also supports creating custom branded organization pages.
- OCL Terminology Service Core REST API and backbone of the OCL Toolkit providing open-source terminology management and FHIR-enabled publication of standardized and local terminologies. Supports bulk import of terminology resources via CSV or JSON-lines formats with asynchronous parallel processing. Available at api.openconceptlab.org with documentation at docs.openconceptlab.org under Mozilla Public License v2.
- OCL Mapper Open-source mapping solution for automated and manual mapping of local data to standardized terminologies such as LOINC. Incorporates multiple algorithmic approaches including biomedical NLP (ScispaCy-LOINC), semantic matching, and keyword matching, with a weighted ranking framework to prioritize the best mapping candidates. Achieved 42.3% accuracy on MIMIC-IV dataset for sparse/abbreviated text.
Quantifiable outcome
- 80% user account growth in 2023
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Open Concept Lab
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Open Concept Lab technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration3 records
AI capability2 records
Feature6 records
Open Concept Lab partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eight partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.
- HL7 BrasilflagshipStrategic partnership to advance open, standards-based semantic interoperability in Brazil as Digital Public Infrastructure for Health. Combines HL7 standards (particularly FHIR) with OCL's terminology services infrastructure. HL7 Brasil contributes national leadership, governance insight, and real-world validation including International Patient Summary (IPS) exchange. OCL contributes open-source infrastructure, terminology management capabilities, and AI-powered OCL Mapper. Three-year goal to establish OCL as shared national terminology service supporting RNDS and IPS implementation.
- Health Level 7 (HL7) InternationalcoreEstablished statement of understanding with HL7 International for collaboration on FHIR terminology services. HL7 Brasil is the official HL7 affiliate in Brazil driving national implementation.
- ApeloncoreSupporting organization providing terminology content normalization and publication through Apelon DTS system. Partnership enables publication of reference vocabularies including SNOMED CT, LOINC, and other terminologies in OCL Online.
- Regenstrief InstitutecoreSupporting organization contributing to OCL ecosystem. Regenstrief's Global Health Informatics team provides technical advisors and participates in FHIR Connectathons and community development.
- Digital SquarecoreSupporting organization under PATH's Digital Square program. OCL participates in Global Goods Innovator Summit and collaborates on digital global goods initiatives.
- PEPFARcorePEPFAR supports OCL through the Metadata Sharing Platform (MSP) providing data exchange and interoperability for PEPFAR indicators. PEPFAR DATIM users access terminology resources through OCL.
- OpenMRScoreDeep partnership with OpenMRS community. OCL hosts CIEL dictionary used by OpenMRS implementations worldwide. The OpenMRS-OCL Squad develops dictionary management tools. OCL Dictionary Manager deprecated in favor of OCL TermBrowser transition.
- World Health Organization (WHO)coreOCL working with WHO to support SMART Guidelines initiative and WHO Digital Documentation of COVID-19 Certificates (DDCC). OCL FHIR Core publishes WHO terminology resources.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Open Concept Lab competitors and assessment
Company assessmentMarket position
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Open Concept Lab social profiles
Digital presenceOpen Concept Lab financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Open Concept Lab leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Open Concept Lab funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Open Concept Lab 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 Open Concept Lab
What does Open Concept Lab do?
Open Concept Lab provides an open-source, cloud-based terminology management platform for healthcare interoperability. It offers tools (OCL Online, TermBrowser, Terminology Service, and Mapper) for collaboratively managing, publishing, and using standardized healthcare terminologies including LOINC, SNOMED, ICD-10, and CIEL with FHIR-compliant APIs. The platform is designed for national health authorities, ministries of health, and OpenMRS implementers, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Is Open Concept Lab a public or private company?
Open Concept Lab is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Open Concept Lab founded?
Open Concept Lab was founded in 2012. It employs 1 to 10 people.
How does Open Concept Lab make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Cloud-hosted OCL Online is the primary driver. The others are self-hosted Enterprise Deployments and enterprise Account Services.
Does Open Concept Lab have an API?
Yes. OCL exposes a comprehensive public REST API for managing terminologies. The API supports bulk importing of terminology resources (Concepts, Mappings, Sources, Collections, Organizations) via CSV or JSON-lines formats with asynchronous processing. OCL also provides OCL FHIR Core (beta), a FHIR-enabled terminology service implementing CodeSystem, ValueSet, and ConceptMap resources and operations. The API is available at api.openconceptlab.org with documentation at docs.openconceptlab.org. Source code is freely available under Mozilla Public License v2 on GitHub at github.com/OpenConceptLab. Developer documentation is at docs.openconceptlab.org.
What industry is Open Concept Lab in?
Open Concept Lab's product category is Healthcare Terminology Management. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HLACAIAF, Healthcare Terminology, Ontology & Code Set Management (SNOMED/LOINC/ICD/RxNorm), with a secondary code of HLACABAJ, Terminology Services & Semantic Interoperability (SNOMED/LOINC/RxNorm mapping). Its NAICS code is 5132 and its SIC code is 7372.