Category Archives: Public Health

GNU Health pioneers the adoption of WHO ICD-11 and ICHI standards

11 Friday Dec 2020

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GNU Health and the World Health Organization

The GNU Health project believes in coding standards, specially in those that can be widely used. In 2011, the United Nations University (UNU) adopted the GNU Health Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) component, in part because of its strong focus in social medicine and environmental health, but also because it complied with most of the World Health Organization standards.

Using WHO standards is key for global health. The GNU Health federation provides timely and accurate health information to citizens and health professionals globally. We are able to generate this large, distributed networks of information thanks to protocols and standards, that permit the aggregation of data from thousands and even millions of nodes.

GNU Health at the United Nations – International Institute for Global Health

GNU Health HMIS provides many WHO standards and UN models, such as:

  • ICD-10, International Classification of Diseases, tenth revision
  • ICD-9, Volume 3, for coding procedures
  • ICF, International Classification of Functioning, Disability & Health
  • ICPM, International Classification of Procedures in Medicine (to be replaced by ICHI)
  • WHO List of Essential Medicines
  • Pediatric growth charts
  • Vaccination schedules
  • MDG / SDG (Millennium Development Goals / Sustainable Development Goals, such as the MDG6 to tackle HIV, Malaria and Tuberculosis

Health professionals, institutions and governments around the world can trust GNU Health as the WHO compliant Hospital Management and Health information system.

GNU Health training for WHO Africa Regional Officers

Throughout these years, GNU Health and WHO have been cooperating in areas of Universal Health access, Mother and Child health or campaigns to fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis.

It has been nearly a decade of work, at the technical, functional and community level. The training of WHO regional officials, as well as to the health professionals have had a quite positive impact. Proper coding using WHO standards in GNU Health, both for health conditions and procedures / interventions result in good quality, epidemiological reports, better management of the internal resources and improved health promotion and disease prevention campaigns.

First newborn registration in the GNU Health implementation at Cameroon district hospital

Moving forward: ICD-11 and ICHI

The current International Classification of Diseases, tenth revision (ICD10) has been of great help to standardize coding health conditions, but it has its limitations and it definitely needs a review in both the coding system itself as well as the need of specific health areas.

To overcome these limitations, the World Health Organization started ICD-11, the latest revision that includes many more health conditions, the much needed areas of mental health and sexual health, as well as a great method to combine conditions, called cluster coding or postcordination. Cluster coding allows the combination of two terms in for the condition. This concept brings much more flexibility and contextualization.

In terms of health procedures, the International Classification of Health Interventions (ICHI) is estimated to be released by the end of this month. ICHI will replace the International Classification of Procedures in Medicine (ICPM).

The International Classification of Health Interventions will become the standard coding system for reporting and analyzing health procedures. In words from WHO, “the classification provides Member States, service providers, managers, and researchers with a common tool for reporting and analyzing health interventions for statistical, quality and reimbursement purposes.“.

ICHI delivers a coding method based on three axes: Target, Action and Means. It is valid for all context of health (primary care, surgical, dental, nursing, community health). It contains over 7000 interventions that can deliver at an individual or population basis.

GNU Health leads the integration of WHO References

Depending on the individual and environment, a particular pathology can have different clinical representations of the disease. Diabetes mellitus (DM) can be controlled or can have devastating consequences for the individual. Most of the times the socioeconomic determinants play a key role on the epidemiology, clinical outcomes and disease progression, and assessing health as a whole – from the molecular basis to the socioeconomic determinants – is one of the areas where GNU Health excels.

GNU Health provides the WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health, that has been key in many context, to assess the impact of the environment in many patients. This was studied in the GNU Health implementation in Laos (see my post “GNU Health: Helping Laos Heal from UXO physical and emotional trauma.“).

WHO diagram on relations among reference classifications

GNU Health is ICD-11 ready, and waiting for you

The upcoming release 3.8 for the GNU Health HMIS component includes de ICD-11 Morbidity and Mortality Statistics (MMS) linearization, as well as the existing ICF package. We are waiting for WHO to release the stable version of ICHI.

The ICD-11 will officially come into effect on 1 January 2022, so we have a year to train and get used to it. The GNU Health HMIS community server can be your perfect training companion. It’s online 24×7 and you can test the new codings in this server.

At this point, you can already start testing the ICD-11 functionality, and how it interacts with the other references as the ICF. Of course, you can become part of the GNU Health team, either as an end-user of as a member of our development and research team, and provide feedback and improvements!

These new additions will be of great help to achieve our common mission towards Universal Health Coverage and Sustainable Development Goals. At the end of the day, GNU Health is a social project that uses really cool Libre technology. I am positive that the immense majority of our health related problems, both at individual and population level, can be solved by means of Social Medicine.

As Dr. Rudolf Virchow said, Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing else but medicine at a larger scale.

Tackling the Beast: Using GNU Health to help the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic

31 Tuesday Mar 2020

Posted by in GNU Health, Public Health

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gnuhealth-covid-banner

Introduction

The world is facing one of the the biggest health, economic and social crisis. A minuscule, 50-nanometer in diameter structure is putting the most powerful world economies on their knees, and hundred of thousands are tragically succumbing to COVID-19.

This article is an invitation to governments to embrace GNU Health and Libre Software for the sake of their public healthcare system in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

For those of you who already use GNU Health, take this article as some sort of guideline to optimize your implementation and day-by-day usage. Even though it focuses on COVID-19 disease, most topics will apply to any GNU Health implementation.

People before patients: Demographics and health infrastructure

Information is power. Good quality and timely data is crucial to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. GNU Health has been designed on Social medicine. That is, instead of dealing directly with patients, GNU Health works first on the main pillars of a society. As a result, the government will have better tools for health promotion and disease prevention. The government will be better prepared to fight this pandemic and future outbreaks.

Domiciliary Units : DU are houses, apartments and buildings where people live. GNU Health DU model stores the infrastructure, sanitary conditions as well as the people who is living at anytime at that dwelling, in realtime. This feature is key to track possible contacts of an infected individual. Moreover, the infrastructure, surface and number of rooms provides great information in terms of possible overcrowding conditions that would facilitate the spreading of the disease. Each domiciliary unit can be georeferenced, thanks to GNU Health link OpenStreetMap.

 

gnuhealth_domiciliary_unit_osm

Domiciliary Unit in GNU Health: conditions, members and its geolocation linked to OSM

 

Operational Areas: GNU Health can divide a country in administrative areas and sectors (provinces, cities, neighborhoods,..) composed by domiciliary units and health institutions. GNU health can do real-time epidemiological reporting based on these sectors. Understanding this concept is key for COVID-19 contention or mitigation programs, since it would be able to identify early outbreaks in new areas, or focus on sections of relevant incidence. Operational areas and sectors allow us to find correlations from many indicators (ethnicity, sex, age, income, education level, population density) in the COVID-19 incidence, prevalence, susceptibility of infection or disease progression.

Health institutions: GNU Health can keep track and manage health institutions across the country. Human resources, financial and stock management, pharmacies and laboratories. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, you can do reporting on occupation levels of those institutions, number of beds, operating rooms, devices such as ventilators, number of health professionals and their specialties, the incidence, prevalence and mortality per institution, average time of hospitalization, and many other studies. Of course, you need to have the institutions set up.

gnuehalth_institution

GNU Health institution model

Health professionals : In crises such the COVID-19, GNU Health allows the Ministry of health to know each health professional, their specialties, the health institution where they work and where are they located (operational sectors). Time is precious and keeping updated information of the professionals will allow rapid assignment.

Person Demographics: Age, address and domiciliary units, work and insurance. Make sure this information is stored. Age is a factor on this epidemics, as COVID-19 is particularly pernicious with the elderly population. The profession of the person is also important. For instance, health professionals are highest infected group. Demographics will also help to identify people without health coverage, unemployed, homeless and other underprivileged groups that are particularly vulnerable.

 

Person contacts: For each person, GNU Health keeps record of their contacts and their relations (work, classmates, friends, classmates). In the scenario of a positive case for COVID-19, this information would allow to call the patient close contacts. It is key to have this information updated. Remember to fill in all possible contact mechanisms for each person (email, mobile phone, Telegram, …). Tracking and getting in touch with the person close contacts is vital.

Person Universal ID: This is one key feature of GNU Health, specially in the context of the GNU Health Federation. The person Unique ID (Federation Account) would be valid not only for the region or country, but across the world. The clinical information could be available and updated in any health institution across the country or region, immediately available for the rest.

Screening

The World Health Organization (WHO) keeps saying “test,test,test” the population. The earlier we test the population, the better we can control the spread of the disease in the community. Special population groups, such as health professionals, the elderly or those with existing health conditions should have priority.

There are rapid, point-of-care tests available in many countries that can deliver the results in less than 30 minutes. Some of them around 10 minutes. In GNU Health, you can use the SARS-CoV-2 antibodies lab test type.

GNU Health workstations can be deployed at the mobile test stations, and send the information in real-time to the Ministry of Health, with the result, signed and validated.

SARS-CoV-2 antibodies lab request
GNU Health report SARS-CoV-2 result

If the person has tested positive for IgM antibodies, it means she is in the early stage of the infection. IgG antibodies build up later in the infection and are part of the “immunological memory”. If IgM is positive, you must update the health conditions, include the following ICD10 code and activate the COVID-19 protocol for patient isolation and contact tracking.

The ICD10 code for COVID-19 is U07.1

U07.1 : 2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease COVID-19 : In GNU Health, the U07.1 condition (COVID-19) belongs to the infectious, respiratory and notifiable disease groups.

Indicate the lab test type and order in the related condition.

gnuhealth_patient_screen

GNU Health patient screen sample, including critical information related to COVID-19 disease

Clinical Management

If the patient is tested positive but is asymptomatic or mild clinical, the patient might be sent home for home care. Please verify at that moment if the Domiciliary Unit meets the requirements (ventilation, number of rooms, number of people in the house, … ).

If the person has tested positive and/or presents signs to warrant her hospitalization, admit her to the health facility and assign her a bed in the appropriate ward. A new inpatient record will be created, with the corresponding in charge physician, treatment and nutrition plan. When admitting a patient suffering from COVID-19 is important to enter its code (U07.1 : 2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease COVID-19) as the reason of admission and discharge. This will be very valuable for statistics.

Medical History: The patient medical history is ready in GNU Health, from all the patient evaluations in the different health institutions. In the context of the COVID-19, this information is key, especially for people with chronic health conditions, such as cardiovascular disease or diabetes. The current and past medication is also stored in GNU Health, as well as surgeries.

Roundings: For each rounding, enter the vital signs, the medication provided,  assess the environment and the “Six P’s” and record all the procedures done in the rounding itself.  In addition, if the patient is on Intensive Care Unit (“ICU” tab), record relevant information on nervous, respiratory, cardiovascular, urinary and digestive systems, as well as any signs of infection.

The vital signs can be taken in different contexts. They can be assessed in an outpatient evaluation, inpatient nurse rounding or ICU setting.

Intensive Care Unit: If the disease progression is life threatening, the patient will be admitted to the Intensive Care Unit. GNU Health has an Intensive Care Unit module. After recording the main information of the rounding, move to the “ICU” tab for a detailed assessment of the patient in this unit. Scores such as Glasgow Coma Scale and Apache II are available.   For each ICU rounding the health professional should record both the basic information as well as a detailed RoS. GNU Health allows to enter ECG information and the copy of the ECG strip per rounding, if needed.

A percentage of hospitalized patients by COVID-19 will need mechanical ventilation. GNU Health records the type and duration of the intubation, per patient on each institution. This information is very valuable for both clinical management as well as for statistics. Most countries are facing today is the shortage of mechanical ventilators. GNU Health permits to know the incidence of hospitalizations due to COVID-19, as well as the discharge rate.

Medical Imaging and Laboratory tests

Radiological findings of many COVID-19 patients are compatible with atypical pneumonia. Streaky opacities, specially at the bases are common findings. Many people with mild disease won’t show any radiological signs.

GNU Health provides different types of Dx tests. Images and observations are recorded in the system and linked to the patient history. In addition to the standard GNU health radiology package, the Intensive Care module also permits to add Xray images on each rounding to evaluate and compare the disease progression.

For large images and studies, such MRI or CT scans, we highly recommend the GNU Health Orthanc package. Orthanc is a fantastic Libre DICOM server and GNU Health can interoperate with it, thanks to the magic of the Free Software philosophy.

gnuhealth-dx-imaging-atypical_pneumonia_covid19

GNU Health radiology. Findings compatible with atypical pneumonia in a COVID-19 patient

In addition to the standard lab test types (CBC, renal and liver function …..), there are markers that can predict COVID-19 progression and severity. For instance, high ferritin levels, low platelet number and a high ESR are common in patients who develop severe disease and the cytokine storm syndrome.

CBC-lab-test

GNU Health LIMS showing a Complete Blood Count sample

All the lab test results can be exported to different formats. In the context of the GNU Health Federation a new POL (Page of Life) is created and the information can be exchanged directly in JSON format. The following pictures show the same lab test report in PDF and JSON format from the GNU Health Federation message server (“Thalamus”)

GNU Health generated CBC Lab test report in pdf
Lab test JSON format from the GNU Health Federation

 

In addition to the tests done in hospitalized patients, remember that GNU Health LIMS package can be used in diagnostic and population screening, as in the case of PCR and rapid tests.

Death Certificates

The death certificate is a key document, since it has legal, administrative, demographic and epidemiological significance.

The following is an example of how we could use the GNU Health Vital Record System to generate a death certificate associated to the COVID-19 disease.

gnuhealth_covid_death_certificate

Person Death certificate related to COVID-19 disease

Digitally signing the digital certificate with the health professional and/or civil officer will make it a legal document. GNU Health uses GNUPG (GNU Privacy Guard) to digitally sign and encrypt documents.

death-certificate_digital_signature

Digital signature section of the death certificate

Research

Although the respiratory system is the most affected in patients with COVID-19, other organs can be impacted. The ACE2 receptor (cell’s entry point for SARS-CoV-2) is expressed in other tissues in addition than lungs, such colon and heart. Not surprisingly, gastrointestinal symptoms and cardiac involvement, as acute myocarditis, have been reported. Recording all findings will help to improve the management of the disease of the patient, but also to share information with colleagues from the scientific community.

Sharing the patient treatments and individual outcomes will help speed up clinical trials and response to possible therapeutic agents (eg, remdesivir, lopinavir/ritonavir, hydroxychloroquine, tocilizumab…)

gnuhealth_federation_components

The GNU Health Federation connects thousands of nodes from health and research institutions

To be able to achieve such breakthroughs in science and in our society, we need our politicians and governments to embrace open science, open data and Libre software.

A call for Open Science, Open Data and Libre Software

The current COVID-19 pandemic is a terrible tragedy for human kind, but opens an opportunity to cooperation, to join forces and to our innate resilience.There are many gray areas and many uncertainties in the origin of the virus, disease progression and therapeutic approaches. On the other hand, the GNU Health Federation allows the scientific community to come together and tackle this beast. We can securely  share huge, anonymized amount of information from all over the world to find not only the molecular basis of the COVID-19 disease, but environmental and social factors that impact on the susceptibility and disease progression.

I am returning from Japan, where I was invited to give a lecture at Kyoto university Medical Innovation Center (MIC). It was an honor to share ideas with students and professionals from a leading institution on molecular biology and biomedicine. Although I talked about GNU Health in cancer research, my presentation focused on the importance of Libre Health informatics, open science, open data in Public Health. It was surprisingly exciting the great level of engagement of the audience in these topics.

A robust, sustainable public health infrastructure must be based in cooperation. Cooperation involves open knowledge and open science. I am convinced that true evolution comes from cooperation, and not from competition. In this sense, we as members of the scientific community should share our work, whether is a computer program source code, the discovery of a protein natural variant or the development of a new therapeutic molecule.

GNU Health uses the GPL license (General Public License), which permits downloading the program, study the source code, adapt it to your center needs and share it with the community.

Keep in mind that libre software not only provides collective freedom, but is the only way to achieve privacy in healthcare. Proprietary, non-libre programs are blackboxes that jeopardize both personal privacy and public health information. In addition to that, using proprietary software in Public Health is an obscene contradiction.

To accomplish collective freedom, every single component must be Free/Libre. That is, the operating systems (both for servers and clients) as well as the applications around. We will need to share information among colleagues around the world, so the format that we use in the corresponding files should also be open.

In the meantime, stay safe. Stay home !

 

La venganza del Pangolín

11 Wednesday Mar 2020

Posted by in Public Health

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El todopoderoso, arrogante ser humano ahora está asustado y  frágil.

La nueva epidemia del coronavirus covid-19, causado por el virus SARS-COV-2, es la última de una serie de zoonosis que amenaza en convertirse en una pandemia. Algunas enfermedades zoonóticas recientes causadas por coronavirus han sido el SARS (Síndrome Respiratorio Agudo Grave) o el MERS (Síndrome Respiratorio de Oriente Medio). Todas ellas tienen como origen común animales que han sido explotados por humanos.

Pangolin

Credit : Associated Press – AP

Parece que el brote inicial del COVID-19 tuvo su origen en el un mercado de la ciudad de Wuhan, donde animales vivos son mantenidos en condiciones deplorables. Gatos, perros, murciélagos, serpientes, ciervos, pollos, etc.. son enjaulados y observan aterrorizados como queman vivos y matan a otros animales inocentes, sabiendo que ellos tendrán la misma suerte.

Wuhan wet market -Source : Weibo

El pangolín está en peligro de extinción, víctima de la “medicina tradicional” en China y en muchos otros países de Asia. Cazadores furtivos han hecho que el pangolín sea el mayor víctima de esta atrocidad. Por supuesto, no es la única víctima de la codicia e ignorancia humana. Los tiburones también están enfrentando la extinción por sus aletas, así como los rinocerontes y elefantes que son mutilados o asesinados por sus cuernos. Un mercado tan cruel y inhumano como bárbaro en el nombre de  una falsa medicina, sin ningún tipo de evidencia científica.

Ganadería industrial, resistencia antibiótica, calentamiento global y priones

Asia no está sola cuando hablamos de crueldad animal. Europa y los Estados Unidos tienen las mayores granjas industriales, donde literalmente millones de seres sintientes son secuestrados, esclavizados y asesinados cada día.

Dairy industry – Credit Animal Equity
Credit – Animal Equity

En la industria láctea, las vacas son violadas, sus terneros son enviados al matadero pocas horas después de nacer, y se les colocan pinchos en el hocico que generan dolorosas lesiones a la madre, con el fin de evitar la lactancia.

La industria ganadera y láctea son asesinos en serie. Necesitan optimizar el crecimiento del producto, el animal, así que mientras más rápido crezca, antes son asesinadas. Para acortar el ciclo de los animales, estas industrias usan hormonas de crecimiento y antibióticos. Literalmente se emplean toneladas de antibióticos, no sólo para aumentar el peso, sino para luchar las enfermedades generadas por las condiciones inhumanas y hacinamiento en las que los animales están confinados. Esto hace que el ganado sea el mayor mercardo de antibióticos, así como la mayor fuente de resistencia antibiótica que tiene un impacto directo en la salud humana.

Antibiotic resistance – Source CDC
Livestock use of antibiotics – source New England Journal of Medicine

Irónicamente, la dieta basada en productos animales no es sólo innecesaria, sino que también es poco saludable. El consumo de productos lácteos y cárnicos están asociados a enfermedad cardiovascular y distintos tipos de cáncer. Esto es un hecho irrefutable. Por muchos años la industria ganadera y láctea han estado mostrando una falsa realidad acerca de los supuestos beneficios a la salud. El lobby ha sido tal que penetró las facultades de medicina, nutrición y la literatura científica. Ahora sabemos que ha sido todo una mentira.

En un esfuerzo para optimizar el “ciclo de producción”, las vacas, que son herbívoros, han sido alimentadas con productos de origen animal. Esta práctica anti-natural generó la encefalopatía espongiforme bovina, una enfermedad devastadora e invariablemente fatal. Muchas personas, especialmente en Europa ha sucumbido a la variante humana de la enfermedad (Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD)) después de comer la carne de animales infectados. Más de 4.5 millones de vacas fueron sacrificadas por miedo  a que fueran portadoras del prión.

Pero eso no es todo. La ganadería extensiva (“Factory farming”) es una fuente principal de calentamiento global. Según The Humane Society, la ganadería industrial es responsable del 34% de las emisiones de metano (CH4), con una capacidad veinte veces mayor de efecto invernadero que el dióxido de carbono (CO2)[1] . La tasa de deforestación del Amazonas ha alcanzado su punto más alto. Los bosques amazónicos se queman para plantar soja, y millones de litros de recursos naturales preciosos como el agua son desperdiciados para alimentar a un ganado que posteriormente será sacrificado. Tan cruel como absurdo.

factory_farming

“La venganza del Pangolín”, título de este artículo, representa la venganza de todas las especies que han sido explotadas por el ser humano. Es la respuesta de la Madre Naturaleza a nuestras estúpidas acciones, basadas en la codicia e ignorancia que están llevando a la especie humana a su auto-destrucción. Pareciera que una maldición ha caído sobre la humanidad como consecuencia de su nefasto comportamiento con otras especies y con la Naturaleza.

La epidemia del Covid-19 es la última respuesta de la Naturaleza al arrogante, ignorante, egoísta ser humano. Es una forma de decirnos que somos víctimas de nuestros propios actos malvados.

Todavía soy optimista, pero tenemos que actuar ya. Deberíamos empezar por ser humildes. Tenemos que arrepentirnos y pedir perdón por todo el daño y hechos execrables a otras especies. Debemos recomenzar, generando una relación empática y compasiva con ellas.

En vez de ponernos mascarillas – que no sirven de nada a personas sanas y se las quitan a las personas que realmente las necesitan – debemos tomar acciones de manera inmediata. Esa acción no pasa únicamente por pedir a la comunidad científica para que genere un antiviral o una vacuna, que llegará tarde a muchos. La medida debe ser sostenible a largo plazo.

Los gobiernos y organizaciones supranacionales como la Organización Mundial de la Salud deben poner un fin a la industria láctea y ganadera. Deben prohibir la caza, en todas sus formas, así como imponer las mayores penas a los cazadores furtivos y mercados animales, así como a los países que los fomenten.

Paralelamente, se debe promover prácticas agrícolas orgánicas sostenibles. Los gobiernos deben poner el foco en mejorar el sistema educativo donde los niños aprendan, principalmente, a ser personas humildes, compasivas y respetuosas.

Nosotros, como individuos, debemos parar de ser parte de esta industria y sociedad perversa. Podemos erradicar estos crueles sistemas económicos basados en el sufrimiento animal si dejamos de ser sus clientes. Una de las acciones más importantes que puedes hacer es cambiar a una dieta de origen vegetal. Con los hechos sobre la mesa, ya no hay excusa para no adoptarla.

“Be kind to all kind”. Hazte vegano. Por los animales, por el planeta, por tu salud.

 

1.- Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Animal Agriculture.  https://www.humanesociety.org/sites/default/files/archive/assets/pdfs/farm/hsus-fact-sheet-greenhouse-gas-emissions-from-animal-agriculture.pdf

2.- Preserving Antibiotics, Rationally . Aidan Hollis, Ziana Ahmed.- The  New England Journal of Medicine, Dec. 2013 .https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1311479

 

The revenge of the Pangolin

26 Wednesday Feb 2020

Posted by in animal rights, Public Health

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The all-mighty, arrogant human race is now feeling fragile and scared.

The novel coronavirus epidemic (covid-19) is the latest of a series of zoonotic virus known to be pathogenic in humans and threatens to become a pandemic. Recent coronavirus known to cause disease in human have been the source of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) or MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) . All of them linked to animals that have been exploited by humans.

Pangolin

Pangolin carrying her baby – Picture credit : Associated Press – AP

It seems like the initial  covid-19 outbreak had its source in a market in the city of Wuhan, where live animals are kept in deplorable conditions. Cats, dogs, bats, snakes, deers,  chickens are jailed and have to watch terrified how they scald, burn alive and kill the other innocent animals, knowing they will suffer the same fate.

Wuhan wet market -Source : Weibo

Wuhan wet market -Source : Weibo

The pangolin is facing extinction, victim of the “traditional medicine” in China and many other Asian countries. Poachers around the world have made the pangolin the most poached mammal in the world. Of course, is not the only victim of human greed and ignorance. Sharks are also facing extinction, as well as rhinos and elephants which are brutally killed for their fins or horns. Cruel,  inhumane, barbaric ludicrous market in a name of a fake medicine, without any scientific evidence.

Factory Farming, antibiotic resistance global warming and prions

Asia is not alone in animal cruelty. Europe and the United States have the largest factory farms, where literally millions of sentient beings are sequestered, enslaved and killed every day.

Credit – Animal Equity
Dairy industry – Credit Animal Equity

In the dairy industry, cows are raped, their male baby calves are sent to the slaughter house shortly after birth, and many are kept with spikes around their mouth so they can not drink the milk from their mothers.

The meat and dairy are mass murder industries. They need to optimize the growth of the animal, so the faster they grow, the faster they are slaughtered. To shorten the lifecycle of the animals, they use growth hormones and antibiotics. Literally tons of antibiotic are used, not only for gaining weight, but to fight the diseases the animals carry due to the inhumane conditions under they are kept. That makes the livestock the largest antibiotic market as well as the largest source for antibiotic resistance that has a direct impact on human health.

Antibiotic resistance – Source CDC
Livestock use of antibiotics – source New England Journal of Medicine

Ironically, animal based diet is not only unnecessary in humans, but also unhealthy. Consumption of dairy products and meat leads to cardiovascular disease and different types of cancer. This fact is irrefutable. For many years the meat and dairy industry has been portraying a false reality about the health benefits of animal based diet. The lobby was such that even penetrated medical schools and the scientific literature. Now we know it has been a lie.

In an effort to optimize the “production” cycle, cows – herbivore animals –  had been feed with animal byproducts. This anti-natural practice led to the bovine spongiform disease, a devastating prion disease, invariably fatal. Many people, specially in Europe have succumbed to Variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD) after eating meat of infected cows, and millions of cows put to death feared they carry the prion.

But that is not all. Factory farming is the leading source of global warming and deforestation. According to the Humane Society, factory farming accounts for 34% of methane (CH4) emissions, which has twenty times the global warming effect than carbon dioxide (CO2)[1] . Deforestation in the Amazon is happening at the highest rate. Amazon forests are being burnt to plant soy, and millions and millions of tons of precious natural resources like water is being wasted to livestock.

factory_farming

“The revenge of the Pangolin” actually represents the revenge of all species who have been exploited by the human being. It is the response of Mother Nature to our senseless acts, based on greed and ignorance that are leading the human race to self destruction. It would almost seem a curse has been put on humanity for the complete disrespect of other sentient beings  and Nature.

The novel Covid-19 coronavirus epidemic is the latest Nature response to the arrogant, ignorant, greedy, now scared to death humanity. It is a way of telling us that we are victims of our own evil actions.

I am still optimistic, but the time for acting is now.We should start by being humble. We have to honestly ask for forgiveness to all other species, and start a new empathetic, compassionate relationship with them.

Instead of walking around wearing (mostly useless) masks, we must take immediate action,  and the action is not just asking the scientific community to look for a vaccine, which would come late for many, and won’t work for the next strain. The action must be sustainable in the long term.

Governments and organizations such United Nations and World Health Organization should immediately put to stop to factory farming, meat and dairy industries. They must ban  poaching or animal markets anywhere in the World, and impose the highest penalties the countries who don’t comply. In parallel, they need to promote sustainable, organic agriculture practices. Governments should also focus on improving the education system where children learn, first and foremost, how to become kinder,  compassionate human beings.

We, as individuals, must stop being part of this wicked industry. These cruel economies based on animal suffering won’t survive if they don’t have clients.  On of the most important actions you can do is to change to a plant-based diet. You have the facts now, there is no excuse.

Be kind to all kind. Be vegan. For the animals, for the planet, for your health.

1.- Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Animal Agriculture.  https://www.humanesociety.org/sites/default/files/archive/assets/pdfs/farm/hsus-fact-sheet-greenhouse-gas-emissions-from-animal-agriculture.pdf

2.- Preserving Antibiotics, Rationally . Aidan Hollis, Ziana Ahmed.- The  New England Journal of Medicine, Dec. 2013 . https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1311479

GNU Health: 10 years of Freedom and Equity in Healthcare

16 Wednesday Oct 2019

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Update: Last year (May 2018), the FSF asked me to write a post about GNU Health. Finally, here it is !

May 2018

social_medicine

Health is a non-negotiable human right. Access to quality healthcare must be public and universal.

I am back from my trip to India, where I spent a week with the team of All India Institute of Medical Sciences – AIIMS –, the largest public hospital in Asia and a leading research institution. They have taken the decision to adopt GNU Health, the Free Hospital and Health Information System.

One key aspect in Free Software is ownership. From the moment they adopted GNU Health, it now also belongs to AIIMS. They have full control over it. They can download and upgrade the system; access the source code; customize it to fit their needs; and contribute back to the community. This is the definition of Free Software.

The definition of Free Software is universal. GNU Health is equally valid for very large institutions, national public health networks and small, rural or primary care centers. The essence is the same.

GNU Health as a social movement: GNU Health is a social project with technology behind. It’s about Social Medicine and delivering universal healthcare. It’s about social activism. One of the main reasons that led me to create GNU Health were the tremendous inequalities in access to healthcare. Over 20000 children die every day from preventable, social diseases. To name a few : malnutrition, contaminated water, child slavery, prostitution, war, malaria, HIV-AIDS, tuberculosis, dengue and other neglected tropical diseases. These are causes and/or results of social diseases, conditions that have a higher impact and higher prevalence on the poor and the underprivileged.

Studying and getting a deeper understanding on the living conditions of people in rural areas and in urban ghettos around the world, reinforced my intention to write a system that included the socio-economic determinants of health and disease. Most of the time, health (and the lack of) is determined by the environment, and biology plays a lesser role. Proper nutrition, housing, sanitation, access to education and to primary healthcare are key for the dignity, development and health of the individual, family and society at large. I like to summarize it as “people before patients”.

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GNU Health implementation at Laos CMR Public Health hospital (CC BY-SA 4.0 GNU Solidario )

Nature and Nurture: Having Social Medicine on its DNA does not stop GNU Health from also working on the molecular basis of health and disease, precision medicine, bioinformatics and genetics. For instance, we incorporate state-of-the-art information from Unitprot containing thousands of gene natural variants involved in human disease. The bio-psycho-social GNU Health approach makes personalized medicine possible, and it builds the bridge between the clinician and the research institution, to better understand and fight multifactorial conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease or cancer. Both nature and nurture are present in GNU Health.

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GNU Health – Freedom and Equity in Healthcare

Trans-disciplinary team: GNU Health works at different levels. Social workers doing prevention in the field; health professionals taking care of the patients; Administrative team dealing with stock, human resources, finances and other internal health institution processes; and the ministry of health improving health campaigns based on the collected data. All these processes and tasks are interconnected, and the result of others.

The fight for Public Health System: I am observing how many countries are dismantling the Public Health system in favor of private corporations. This is not only sad, it is a crime. The only way we can guarantee proper and universal health care is by maintaining the Public Health system. Privatization of the public healthcare is evil, creates a health system for the rich, and excludes the underprivileged that can not afford insurance costs. Let me be very clear: healthcare is just a business for the corporation. Dr. René Favaloro said “Medicine without humanism is unworthy of being practiced”. I am not against the small private doctor office, that is complementary to the public health system. I am condemning the destruction of the current public health system, and putting it on the hands of large corporations that only care about money.

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GNU Solidario first project. Santiago del Estero 2006 . (CC BY-SA 4.0 Luis Falcon)

Public Health is a public good, so, as a result, anything related to public health should also be public. It is a contradiction to have proprietary software running in the public health system. Not only is contradictory and unethical, it poses many dangers to privacy and security of the individual health information. Private software is a black box. We don’t know what happens when a medical evaluation is recorded. Where else does this data go? Who can access it ? We simply don’t know, because we can not see the code behind the action.

Niños de una escuela de Camerún

Children in a Cameroon rural school (2018 CC BY-SA 4.0 Luis Falcon)

Collective Freedom and ethical software: Free software is a philosophy based on community, cooperation and solidarity. We all benefit from the work, effort and talent of others. GNU Health uses many Free Software (operating systems, programming languages, database engines, encryption libraries, etc.). Moreover, GNU Health is today the result of the contribution of many people and institutions. We must be grateful to the community, and make sure that nobody breaks the evolution chain. This is where the concept I call “collective freedom” comes into play. People or companies that take the work of others, and purposely make it non-free are breaking the chain of evolution. They have taken advantage of the good will from the community to lock-in them in. Purposely obfuscating the code, not providing upgrade scripts, hiding documentation are ways violating the “collective freedom” and making a system non-ethical. That is one of the reasons we differentiate between Free Software philosophy, which is ethical by definition, from “Open Source”, that has a more pragmatic approach to programming. Richard Stallman wrote an article “When Free Software depends on nonfree” (https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/when-free-depends-on-nonfree) , related to this concept. For Spanish speakers, you can read my article “El Software Libre no se Mancha” (http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=233717 ), also related to this concept of Collective Freedom.

Ten years of Freedom and Equity in Healthcare: During this 10-year period, we have seen GNU Health adopted in many different scenarios: Primary care centers and academic institutions in Argentina; in the tropical rainforest of Cameroon; Infectious diseases laboratory in Gabon; the eHealth system in Jamaica Ministry of Public Health; The Center for Physical Rehabilitation in Laos taking care of UXO victims; Red Cross hospitals in Mexico or the largest public hospital in India and Asia. They are all different contexts and peculiarities, yet they all share the same spirit, that is, delivering Freedom and Equity in healthcare to the people.

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GNU Health at the United Nations – International Institute for Global Health

Let’s celebrate this 10 years of GNU Health, a social movement with technology behind. Let’s keep on fighting for health to be a non-negotiable human right.

 

 

Del software libre a la medicina social: la propuesta de un doctor canario para humanizar la sanidad

10 Wednesday Apr 2019

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Disfruté mucho la entrevista de Natalia Vargas en Canarias Ahora.

Hablamos de la situación de la salud pública en España, del impacto de los determinantes socioeconómicos en la salud de cada individuo y del rol del software libre en salud, entre otros temas.

Niños de una escuela de Camerún

La adopción de GNU Health en muchas instituciones de salud en el mundo nos permite ser optimistas para que la Salud Pública, y la administración pública en general, adopte el Software Libre como forma de empoderamiento y soberanía tecnológica.

Enlace al artículo:

Del software libre a la medicina social: la propuesta de un doctor canario para humanizar la sanidad

https://www.eldiario.es/canariasahora/sociedad/software-medicina-propuesta-canario-humanizar_0_885411773.html

 

AIIMS adopts GNU Health

01 Tuesday May 2018

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A new chapter in Public Health begins. The largest public hospital in Asia, and leading research institution has adopted GNU Health.
Group picture of AIIMS IT personnel and Luis Falcon
It has been a pleasure to meet in person the IT director Dr. Shariff and the rest of the team, that made me feel at home during my visit to the AIIMS in Delhi.
AIIMS is the largest public health institution in India and in all Asia.
During my stay, we had time to visit the facility, the infrastructure and give an initial training to the local team. The GNU Health implementation will be lead by them, and I am very happy to see that. Building local capacity is key for a large project like this.
GNU Health Federation - HMIS node
Thank you All India Institute of Medical Sciences for choosing Freedom and equity in healthcare !
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I will always remember Dr. Shariff email on Febraury 2018. That mail started all. Thank you, and your team, for choosing GNU Health. Thank you for your hospitality in India, for  making me feel at home during my stay, and for all the beautiful presents I will always keep.
aiims_presents_gnu_health
The world needs more Social Medicine, and AIIMS has given another huge step forward in that direction.  We wish AIIMS all the best and, for now, we  give you a warm welcome our international GH Community !

Sanidad del siglo XXI en el Camerún rural

07 Tuesday Nov 2017

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Artículo interesante de El País – Planeta Futuro – que habla de la informatización de centros de salud de Camerún.

En este caso, hablamos del caso del centro de salud de Bikop, liderado por la Doctora Ana Gutierrez y del centro de salud en Kribi, gestionado por Insoláfrica.

gnuhealth_at_bikop

GNU Health es, ante todo,  un proyecto social y me enorgullece ser parte de estos proyectos y poder brindar equidad en salud en el corazón de África.

Artículo fuente:

https://elpais.com/elpais/2017/10/31/planeta_futuro/1509473092_530414.html

GNU Health : www.gnuhealth.org

Twitter : @gnuhealth

El Software Libre no se mancha

04 Saturday Nov 2017

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Existen dos tipos de miserables: las personas que sufren la miseria y aquellas que la generan.
La concentración del poder en el actual modelo socio-económico es tan injusta como insostenible. La privatización de la Salud Pública pervierte el derecho a una vida digna. La brecha social se profundiza, con ricos más ricos y pobres más pobres.
La codicia y el cortoplacismo del sistema están destruyendo la sociedad y el planeta. La contaminación medioambiental, la galopante deforestación y las granjas industriales son responsables del cambio climático que amenaza a las próximas generaciones.
Millones de animales son privados de su libertad y condenados al holocausto. Bebés arrancados del lecho materno destinados al matadero o encarcelados de por vida en mega granjas industriales en condiciones deplorables. Especismo y antropocentrismo inútil y despiadado, responsable de enfermedades cardiovasculares, cáncer, resistencia antibiótica y cambio climático.
Las corporaciones y sus gobiernos han encontrado herramientas formidables para el adoctrinamiento y vigilancia de masas. Similar a los medios de comunicación tradicionales, pero con métodos de control mucho más sofisticados que anestesian, hipnotizan y anulan el pensamiento crítico de los individuos.
Es imperativo retomar el control de nuestra libertad y dignidad, como individuos y como sociedad. La educación y el activismo social son clave para restaurarlos, y el Software Libre nos ofrece una magnífica vía para llevarlo a cabo.

El Software Libre representa lo contrario al modelo neoliberal. Entre sus fines está desarrollar comunidades, generar conocimiento y compartir recursos. Pero si queremos tener éxito, debemos afrontar y abrir un espacio para la discusión sobre las amenazas y riesgos existentes dentro y fuera de la comunidad.

En los últimos años hay un intento de desprestigiar el movimiento de Software Libre, principalmente por dos actores: La corporación del software propietario y núcleos de desarrolladores sin ética. Que la corporación y el software propietario intente dañar al Software Libre está dentro de lo esperado. Lo que requiere especial atención es el efecto deletéreo ocasionado por especuladores inescrupulosos infiltrados en la comunidad. El factor común de ambos actores es una lectura egoísta y retorcida de la libertad.
Según Richard Stallman, para que un proyecto sea Software Libre debe cumplir las cuatro libertades. Libertad para usar, estudiar, distribuir y mejorar el código. Estas “cuatro libertades” invitan a la colaboración y a construir comunidades alrededor del proyecto.
En el Software libre prevalece el sentido de libertad colectiva . La esfera colectiva tiene prioridad sobre la esfera individual. Por supuesto, el escenario ideal es que ambas libertades coexistan y se retroalimenten. Cuando la libertad individual coarta o anula la libertad colectiva, entonces no es Software Libre, aunque cumpla las cuatro libertades.

La laxitud del Software Libre está concebida para potenciar el espíritu comunitario y colaborativo. Desgraciadamente, esta flexibilidad ha permitido que se infiltren individuos y empresas miserables. Estos impostores tienen por objetivo engañar y apresar a la comunidad con sus malévolos cantos de sirena (Stallman lo denomina “Free bait” o “el anzuelo de lalibertad”).

Por ejemplo, hay quienes que, con nocturnidad y alevosía, sin previo aviso ni argumentos, se apropian, copian o bifurcan un proyecto de software libre activo. No han roto ninguna de las cuatro libertades, pero sus acciones los convierten en unos miserables que perjudican y traicionan a la comunidad.
A esos individuos les pido que mantengan sus sucias manos fuera de la comunidad, porque el Software Libre no se mancha.
La filosofía del Software Libre tiene mucho más de Libre que de Software. Cuando pensemos sobre Software Libre, pensemos en “Software que ofrece Libertad”. El software sólo es el medio para alcanzar la libertad.
En lo personal, adopté la filosofía del Software Libre como estudiante de ingeniería informática a principio de los años noventa. Actualmente, pasados veinticinco años, el Software Libre me ha permitido participar en muchos proyectos sociales y concretar principios de Medicina Social en instituciones de salud alrededor del mundo con el proyecto GNU Health.
Necesitamos avanzar, y para ello es fundamental que losgobiernos, organizaciones multilaterales y ONGs adopten el Software Libre. Las administraciones públicas que usan software privativo entran en una contradicción. Un bien público nuncapuede estar en manos privadas. Pidamos a los partidos políticos que incluyan el Software Libre en la administración pública, y podremos ver su compromiso social.
El Software Libre enseña, sana y hacepueblos soberanos. Permite generar un modelo económico sostenible, donde personas y empresas pueden colaborar con sus servicios, generando un medio digno y ético de vida. Hoy no hay ningún motivo para usar software privativo.
Cada línea de Software Libre codifica comunidad, democracia y dignidad. Codifica justicia social y un futuro mejor para las próximas generaciones y nuestro planeta.
Es tu elección.

Inicia la digitalización de historias clínicas en Diamante, Argentina

23 Thursday Jun 2016

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Se realiza con el sistema informático GNU Health en dos centros dependientes de la comuna,. La primera etapa consta de la digitalización de las historias clínicas personalizada y digitalizada con foto del paciente.
El Área de Salud Municipal de Diamante informó que se comenzó a trabajar con el sistema informático GNU Health en el Centro de Atención Primaria de la Salud (CAPS) de Barrio Belgrano y en el Centro Integrador Comunitario (CIC) “Dr. Domingo Liotta”. La primera etapa consta de la digitalización de las historias clínicas personalizada y digitalizada con foto del paciente … leer más