Open Reception: Open-source appointment booking tool for medical practices

Open Reception aims to be a privacy-friendly and open alternative to existing appointment booking systems. Core modules for stakeholders such as doctors, practice staff, and administrators are currently being developed. Practices will be able to manage their appointments, absences, and availability via a dashboard in the future. Patients will be able to book appointments securely without having to entrust their data to large platforms.

The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. On November 28, 2025, the developers will present a prototype at the Prototype Fund's Demo Day in Berlin. From the end of the year, the software will be available for self-installation or as a hosted solution. We spoke with Karl Ludwig Weise, who is developing Open Reception together with computer scientist Hendrik Belitz.

heise online: What motivates you to offer the appointment portal?

Today, patients usually have to enter their personal data into the forms of large providers without real control over what happens to it. Doctors, in turn, often feel forced to use these platforms because they know of no alternatives. Open Reception addresses this: We want to create a free, encrypted, and open solution that focuses on the patient and the practice – not the business model of third parties. We want to create a trustworthy infrastructure that shows that digitalization in healthcare can also work securely, openly, and for the common good. If patients participate voluntarily and informed, we have done everything right.

How do you ensure that you develop according to the needs of the practices?

We involve medical practices in the development process from the very beginning. Through interviews and feedback rounds, we learn about the problems and wishes in everyday practice life. Practices can even actively participate, by participating in discussions.

Data protection is crucial, especially with health data. How do you solve this technically?

Data protection and data security are at the core of our project. We work with true end-to-end encryption between the patient and the practice so that no one – not even an administrator – can access sensitive information. The keys are exclusively on the users' devices. Modern, quantum-resistant encryption methods are also being considered to guarantee long-term security.

What about integration with existing practice management systems (PVS)?

We are developing public and documented interfaces that enable integration with existing practice software. We are also planning features, for example, for registered patients who can then also book appointments themselves. However, the patient retains control over their data.

Your project is open source. Why did you choose that?

Transparency is the trust that digital medicine needs. Our code is published on GitHub, as is our public project board. Everyone can see what's happening, report errors, or get involved. This creates a community-supported, secure solution instead of a black box.

Doesn't the issue of trade secrets stand in the way of this?

We don't have traditional trade secrets. Our project is intended to be open and transparent. Trade secrets usually arise where data is used to make money; we expressly do not do that. Doctor-patient communication is confidential and will remain so.

Will there be a paid version?

The basic version will remain free and open source. We are optionally planning hosted versions with service level agreements and support, especially for practices that do not have their own IT support for web applications.

Can interested parties follow the development?

We regularly publish updates and insights into the development on Mastodon and Bluesky. There we transparently report on progress and invite discussion.

(mack)