Finally, a demo CD for GnuMed has been released. A link for download can be found on OpenMed.
This CD is based on Knoppix, a well-received bootable Debian GNU/Linux CD. A recent CVS version
of GnuMed has been added to its collection of software (and some packages have been removed to
free up space for GnuMed). This CD will even start a GnuMed PostgreSQL database for your. Better
have plenty of RAM to play (it works on lower end hardware, though). Thanks go to Sebastian and Jubal (GnuMed), Andreas (Debian-Med) as well as Sebastian Zimmermann and
VT100 for hosting the image.
Monthly Archives: November 2002
GnuMed Demo CD released
Finally, a demo CD for GnuMed has been released. A link for download can be found on OpenMed.
This CD is based on Knoppix, a well-received bootable Debian GNU/Linux CD. A recent CVS version
of GnuMed has been added to its collection of software (and some packages have been removed to
free up space for GnuMed). This CD will even start a GnuMed PostgreSQL database for your. Better
have plenty of RAM to play (it works on lower end hardware, though). Thanks go to Sebastian and Jubal (GnuMed), Andreas (Debian-Med) as well as Sebastian Zimmermann and
VT100 for hosting the image.
Dvorak Pans IE, Endorses Mozilla/Netscape
Influential PC Magazine columnist John C. Dvorak in his article “Upstarts Attack Microsoft Slackers” pans Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and strongly endorses the Mozilla browser and its Netscape derivative, as well as the Opera browser: ‘…A lot of people have been switching their browsers from Internet Explorer to Mozilla 1.1, Opera 7, or even the new Netscape Navigator (now based on the Mozilla code). Count me in. For most of my browsing, I’ve moved from IE to Mozilla. The way I see it, Microsoft has simply dropped the ball, and there’s no reason I should suffer for it…’ The article discusses specific ways that Mozilla/Netscape and Opera are better than IE. Mozilla is now up to version 1.2 which is even more reason to switch.
Beth Israel Deaconess System Down for 4 Days
Again thanks to Slashdot for the pointer to this article about a 4 day outage of the computer system at Beth Israel Deaconess which the hospital seems to be open about and which made the staff revert to forms that had not been used in 6 years: ‘The crash surprised experts in the field because most disaster planners mainly worry about backing up hard drives and building redundant servers. But in this case, it wasn’t those repositories of information that were in trouble. It was the network itself – the ”pipes” that carry the information from one place to the other. It was like when at busy times at the office, your e-mail slows down – only so bad that everything ceased to function…’ An alternative scenario: during tropical storm Allison in June of 2001, which flooded the sprawling Houston medical center, all patients had to be evacuated from Memorial-Hermann hospital to another hospital. Both physical records could not be transferred easily and computer records couldn’t either because the hospital computer systems were (still are?) incompatible.
Stippling May Produce Images in Real Time
Thanks to Slashdot for the pointer to this article of a new technique for rendering images in real-time: ‘Ancient artists used a technique called stippling � in which pictures are created by painting or carving a series of tiny dots � to produce drawings on cave walls and utensils thousands of years ago.
Now engineers at Purdue University have created a new kind of computer-imaging software that uses stippling to quickly produce complex pictures of internal organs and other renderings. The method is 10 times faster than some conventional methods and could provide a tool for medical professionals to quickly preview images in real time as a patient is being examined with imaging technologies such as CT scans and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)…
Health IT Infrastructure Emphasized by FDA Chief
Thanks to Mark Kunik for this pointer: Commissioner for the FDA, Mark McClellan, MD, Ph.D emphasized health IT infrastructure in his speech
yesterday at the 3rd Annual Houston Area Health Services and Outcomes Research Conference. ‘…Information technologies are already boosting the efficiency in health care administration and billing. But the promise IT holds for improving the quality and safety of medical care is far from being realized. As Secretary Thompson recently observed, the level of information technology in some hospitals is higher in the cafeterias than on the patient floors. There are important reasons, why. Essentially, for many organizations it doesn’t make business sense, or simply isn’t feasible, to adopt up-to-date systems that can significantly improve health care quality and safety…These are some of the key barriers to a national health-information network, as we have found them: One of the major obstacles to creating high-quality health IT systems is the absence of standards… The question is will they specifically see Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) as a superior way to accomplish this or will they just repeat mistakes of the past?
Frediab: patient database manager in diabetes deseases
Freediab is a open source patients database manager multilingual,multios,using browser as interface.
More details can be found here.
It allow you to:
This file include the following items:
AMIA Announces Open Source ‘Exploratory Initiative’
The American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) has announced five task forces, among them an ‘exploratory initiative’ for Open Source: ‘Open Source is currently an important topic throughout the computer software community and has implications for health care information systems. The purpose of this initiative is to explore the feasibility for AMIA to assume a leadership role in promoting and coordinating Open Source activities in the interests of health care system development. This exploratory effort will inventory the level of interest in Open Source initiatives among the health care information systems vendor community; will consider how those activities might interface with the broader Open Source community; and will assess needs and determine the feasibility of AMIA developing an organizational program designed to promote and coordinate Open Source activities in health care. The exploratory initiative will be conducted under the supervision of Dr. Hammond and Mr. Reynolds.’
Hardhats, WorldVistA, OpenVistA, MedSphere: A Guide to VistA Players
OSHCA 2002 brought a slew of announcements and speakers about VistA. The following is a short guide to the VistA players as seen at OSHCA: Hardhats, OpenVistA, WorldVistA, MedSphere and The Pacific Teleheath and Technology Hui. VistA is the Veterans Administration full-featured electronic medical record which has been developed and used by the VA for decades. It is public domain and available under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Many individuals and organizations are working to get it into the private sector. OSHCA provided a good opportunity to find out who the players are and what they are contributing.
Hardhats : a group of volunteers that are available for help with installing and using the FOIA VistA code. Lots of information and history on their web site as well as an active discussion list.
OpenVistA: There is no clear URL for this organization yet. It is an organization that is creating ‘the stack’ a complete Free/Open Source version of VistA. An example would be a Linux workstation, running GT.M, which runs the FOIA VistA code.
WorldVistA: Recently incorporated entity ‘will not sell services or engage in other revenue generating project activities.’ Instead it will help coordinate and facilitate the efforts of other organizations and individuals in meeting these needs. It is working with groups such as MedSphere, OpenVistA and international organizations using VistA. Recently featured on LinuxMedNews here.
Medsphere Systems Corporation — For profit company that provides VistA configuration, deployment, support, and maintenance for domestic and international healthcare organizations. Recently featured on LinuxMedNews here.
Pacific Teleheath and Technology Hui: A joint DoD/VA venture, it ‘…conducts research, develops prototypes, demonstrates, tests, evaluates, validates, then disseminates and institutionalizes applications of technologies in support of innovative health care processes in the area of telehealth.’
UCLA CIO ‘Humbled’ By Open Source Quality
Mike McCoy, MD is Chief Information Officer of UCLA’s sprawling medical center and a champion of Free and Open Source medical software. His keynote speech at the recent OSHCA was remarkable. The following are excerpts from the speech. Errors in quoting him are mine, apologies in advance. �…I am humbled by the quality of open source software. [Medical software] Vendors have awful software behind the scenes because they don’t have a review process. Vendor companies frequently have 500 employees: 495 in sales, the rest in support…Most companies cannot afford to maintain quality sources themselves…�
“Vendor schemes are becoming more elaborate. It is hard to understand what to pay Microsoft, because their licenses have become so complicated…if vendors would focus on great service, they would make more money…Functionality of medical software is miserable…if only it was a matter of money and it isn’t. My budget is $60 million a year but there isn’t much I want to buy…”
“…I am humbled by the quality of open source software. [Medical Software] Vendors have awful software behind the scenes because they don’t have a review process. Vendor companies frequently have 500 employees: 495 in sales, the rest in support. Most companies cannot afford to maintain quality sources themselves…”
“I am concerned about the follow-the-herd ‘upgrading’ to Windows…Companies with good software on Unix migrate to Windows and the transformation is truly grotesque…IDX corp. has converted from Unix to Windows. It was in a nice little Unix box. Solid, reliable and inexpensive. We bought the Windows ‘upgrade’. It runs on a cluster of 20 NT servers with about the same level of service…”
“…Many CIO’s don’t have the nerve [to use open source medical software]. They don’t survive the consultantocracy. There is an incestuous relationship between consultants and commercial software vendors. Consultants love complex, long-term relationships…”
“Why should medical software cost millions of dollars to install?…There are longer term risks with closed source, like the sunsetting of products, and having no option other than to buy software that a bought-out vendor says you must buy. This isn’t apparent at first…Microsoft can now ‘dial a profit’ [with their new licensing scheme]…people are going to pay to keep Microsofts profits up. The entire University of California means nothing to Microsoft, we have no bargaining position…We hope to make UCLA independent of Microsoft so that we can make business decisions…Consultants never recommend open source solutions…Linux systems run for years non-stop on nice little boxes. I can’t imagine what a 1000 bed hospital would look like on Windows. Sometimes the CIO’s don’t know what OS their systems are running on…[Medical] open source developers should focus on little useful tools rather than boiling the ocean. You can be an open source advocate by using open source, not developing open source. Just use it…When UCLA is all open source, that is going to be a powerful message.”