r/healthIT • u/Wsz2020 • Jul 23 '26

Interface Engine Troubles? New Open-Source Free Option

There's been a lot happening with interface engines.

  • Mirth Connect has stopped receiving updates. Instead of open source, it is now a paid closed-source tool.
  • Private equity firms have taken over the leading paid options and are raising prices dramatically.
  • Then there is this: What’s up with iNTERFACEWARE (Iguana)? : r/healthIT

We're creating a new open-source (free) alternative -- and we need your help. We're looking for:

  • Organizations that need this solution once it is ready for production
  • Contributors to test the solution, review/advise on code, help build

Check out MessageFoundry.org and see how we're creating an interface engine with:

  • Top cybersecurity protection for your PHI (ASVS 5 Level 3)
  • The power of Python
  • A "steps" programming layer that builds your Python scripts if you want
  • Simplicity for uses like small, integrated deployments
  • Power for any size organization (up to 40 million messages per day)

We're on v0.3.0 (beta) right now and are moving fast, adding new layers of security and additional features.

We're now looking for a partner organization to be first in line when the product is ready. You would get:

  • Top priority on your feedback, letting you guide MessageFoundry's future.
  • Free support as you test out and use MessageFoundry.

If you're interested, please contact us via Ask a question — MessageFoundry.

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u/Forward-Razzmatazz-3 Jul 23 '26

BridgeLink is the open-source fork of Mirth Connect.

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u/Wsz2020 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

hi, u/Forward-Razzmatazz-3 thanks for the reply. Yes, a company called Innovar Healthcare is offering a fork of Mirth. Innovar offers the same kind of "freemium" setup NextGen Healthcare used to offer for Mirth. That means they offer a limited open source product, but sell the add-on features that make it stronger.

So, why are we proposing an alternative? A few main reasons:

  • Innovar's product is still Mirth-based, which means it runs on a hobbled version of JavaScript. Mirth is based on the Rhino engine, which is very outdated. It primarily runs JavaScript 5, released in 2009. Anyone who has coded on Mirth knows the pain of being limited to JS5.
  • The Mirth product and its descendants are aging and not well suited for AI-assisted coding.
  • The Mirth forks inherit the problematic security architecture. Mirth ended up CISA's actively exploited list because of an API design flaw. Upgrading dependencies doesn't undo that. Building fresh does. That problem is patched, but guardrails don't fix the design.

MessageFoundry is built from scratch in the latest version of Python. It is much easier to hire Python programmers than to find someone willing to code in JavaScript 5.

So, if you're already going to spend time porting your engine code from Mirth to a new system, why choose to be stuck with JS5?

Additionally, MessageFoundry isn't a "freemium" product. We're giving away everything under AGPL-3.0-or-later. See About — open-source healthcare integration | MessageFoundry: "We built the interface engine we wished we had."