With the current COVID-19 pandemic, we’re seeing increased interest and demand for digital solutions that can help limit the spread of the virus and provide care for those infected. At OpenMRS, our COVID-19 Response squad is focused on sharing experiences, identifying opportunities to extend or re-use existing OpenMRS tools - and figuring out ways to make these solutions more widely available.
It’s entirely possible that more people, organizations, and countries will reach out for more information about using OpenMRS for COVID-19 and setting it up in their environment (traditional or non-traditional clinics).
This creates a special opportunity for our community Help Desk to help newcomers find their way to the right resources where their questions can be answered and their needs met, especially those who want to use OpenMRS as part of their COVID-19 response.
We need help in several important ways and we’re looking for:
A Help Desk Manager to help us monitor and manage requests that come into our Help Desk or are posted on Talk or in Slack. The requirements/expectations for this role include:
- Spend 3 - 5 hours a week minimum
- Proficient to respond to emails and being respectful in interactions.
- Make sure all cases have a response and continued followup
- Document the types of cases that come in and how to handle them
- Join our weekly project management calls to discuss issues
- Actively seek community support to find resolution for cases
A few guides who can point people to the right development and implementation resources on our Wiki, a relevant Talk thread, and respond to general questions.
If any of this sounds of interest to you, please reply to this talk thread or reach out directly to @jennifer.
Wait - but what about newcomers who want help customizing and deploying OpenMRS and our COVID-19 tools?
Our does Help Desk NOT provide end-user support, support with customization, or extensive design or development assistance. And we know that there will likely be requests for that kind of assistance. As and when we do receive those types of requests, we’d still like to respond in a helpful and timely manner. With so many experienced implementers and service providers active in the community, it seems more appropriate to refer these requests to those implementers and service providers with the know-how - and interest in responding to these kinds of requests. If you are an implementer or service provider and would like to receive these kinds of referrals, please reach out to me directly.