OpenMRS is excited to announce Ivo Ulrich (@teleivo) as the Volunteer of the Month for October 
! We’re all grateful for Ivo’s contributions, initiative, and leadership. Thank you for all your contributions @teleivo !
Ivo has been a long-standing community member since 2015. Since then, Ivo has worked extensively on the development aspect of OpenMRS’s codebase. Recently, he has even taken the initiative to update many of OpenMRS’s aging dependencies, bringing a more modern feel to the platform. Ivo has worked on many of OpenMRS’s projects, including OpenMRS-Core and the OpenMRS Radiology Module.
Here’s what Ivo had to say:
Name: Ivo Ulrich
Your OpenMRS ID: teleivo
Tell us a little about your background:
I was born in Austria, Europe studied electrical engineering/biomedical engineering. During my masters I worked on neuromuscular control and after that started in a hospital IT company on integrating open source to support healthcare delivery. Currently I am a consultant developer at ThoughtWorks Berlin.
When did you start with OpenMRS:
My first commit to OpenMRS was on March 4, 2015 adjusting the formatter in the core repository 
I then started to contribute to the radiology module and became the maintainer for a short time. My goal was to create a radiology information system using OpenMRS connected to an image archive (PACS). I struggled to find more experienced contributors and was not experienced enough myself. I totally underestimated the task. I left the hospital IT company I worked for and paused my work on radiology as I wasn’t making the impact I was hoping for.
How do you participate in the community (What activities, projects, role, etc)
I currently try to find ways to improve openmrs-core and development on OpenMRS. However, I struggle to find spare time to contribute more and more regularly.
What drives or inspires you to work with OpenMRS
I know how lucky I am being born in Austria I always had access to great healthcare for free. I want everyone to have access to the same level of care. I want to contribute to OpenMRS to support people delivering healthcare. Furthermore I think that there are so many free software projects supporting all aspects of our lives but that we can definitely do more and better in the area of healthcare.
What are your favorite things to do in your free time
I love to learn. I am constantly reading on software development, listening to podcasts and doing some dev tutorials 
What’s your favorite OpenMRS moment or tell us what makes OpenMRS special to you
I can’t recall a specific moment, but it was the welcoming environment I encountered when I started. I thought of a few things I thought could improve and was encouraged to just try it out and create PRs for it. This was so exciting as I hadn’t worked on open source before.
How has OpenMRS helped you achieve any of your personal goals or how has working with OpenMRS impacted you
This community made and is making me a better developer. By collaborating I learned so much, from “how do I write commit messages so others understand what I wanted to do?” to discussing possible solutions to issues and thinking about their consequences.
I want to thank everyone in this community for their efforts and support! I am really happy I found you 
Thanks again to Ivo Ulrich for all his work and for sharing his story with the community!
To cast your vote for the VOM of November 2017, vote here.
