GNU Health Version 1.4.4

As we announced in the last few months, on January 11th. and 12th. the 5th edition of IWEEEin Granada took place. This edition was hold during the 2012 OSWC (Open Source World Conference) in Granada.

IWEEE Group

What can I say about this edition?! I really believe that, since the first one, we have gone a long long way. This edition was a little bit different from the previous ones: all the presentations were on the 11th.(speakers program) and on the 12th. the Round Table – Unconference took place in the Palacio de Exposiciones y Congresos de Granada, during the 2012 Open Source World Conference (OSWC).

S. Cordara and J. Kafer

The speeches were interesting and really gave space to a great debate on the next day. The idea of IWEEE has always been that of being a space to create new ideas and reflexions. Both speakers and public are always more than welcome to participate with questions, thoughts, solutions, projects …

The IWEEE meetings are growing each year. Thanks to the contribution of each participant in the Unconference – Round Table, we could analyze the real use of free software in the e-health sector and create a set of tasks for each participant, in order to work on them and give some real solutions for the next edition.

GNU Health + Android Integration (screenshot)

GNU Solidario is a very small organization trying to reach out and MAKE A DIFFERENCE. We have many people to thank:

Dr. Salleh, Dr. Syed and Dr. Nurhizam from United Nations University, Institute of Global Health, for their presentations, round table and for sponsoring the event. During the event, UNU-IIGH and GNU Solidario, materialized the partnership to deploy GNU Health, the Free Health and Hospital Information System, globally.

UNU-IIGH and GNU Solidario partnership

Raúl Zambrano from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

Thang Dao and Ludovic Rossel (Doctors without Borders, Switzerland). Inma Gonzalez, Anne Cugier and Manuel Lannaud (Doctors without Borders, Spain). Thang, excellent work during the Unconference. Thanks!!

Round Table: Thang Dao

Cesar Brod, government of Brazil, who has been with us since the first edition of IWEEE.

Round Table: L. Falcon, M. Lannaud, C. Brod and T. Karopka

From the government of Paraguay, Nicolas Caballero, who proposed the IWEEE in Granada and Dr. Gamarra, delegate of Paraguay Ministry of Health.

Thomas Karopka and Etienne Saliez, also with us since the very first edition of IWEEE.

Round Table: Luis Falcon, Manuel Lannaud and Cesar Brod

Joice Käfer from Brodtec (Brazil); Albert Cervera from NaN (Spain); Carlos Sánchez from UDED (Spain); Pablo José from FSF (Spain); Nacho Hermoso de Mendoza Garcìa, Angel Moya Pardo and Roberto Segura Lòpaz from Domatix (Spain), Abdrahman Elkafil from NEXTMA (Morocco) and Lievens Frank from Medetel (Luxembourg).

Our little but powerful community is growing faster and faster. This year slogan was COMMITMENT … or, we could better say, the LACK OF IT …. We are working hard in order to deliver real solutions and improve the quality of current e-Health systems. Strangely there were no representatives from the Andalusian Autonomous Government (Junta de Andalucia) … We hope to see you at the next edition.

We know that cooperation between individuals, public administrations and governments in adopting Free Software in public health is the key for all of us to have access to good quality health care. This is GNU Solidario mission: Health and Education with Free Software.

There’s always time to eat and for a picture. Great tapas in Granada !!!

We hope you had a good time as we did. We would love to hear from you, please let us know your thoughts about the event.

I will post more pictures in the next few days, until then …

Be Free … as in Freedom !

Selene

IWEEE 2012 Granada : Commitment

19 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by Luis Falcon in GNU Health, GNU solidario

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developing countries, ehealth, free software, fsf, gnu, GNU Health, GNU solidario, health, IWEEE, software libre

The International Workshop on e-health in Emerging Economies (IWEEE) keeps getting better on each edition ! This time we celebrated it during the days 11th and 12th of January in Granada, Spain.

IWEEE is organized by GNU Solidario, and it has become the central point to discuss Free Software in Health .

As our friend Cesar Brod mentioned, IWEEE 2012 has been the most successful and collaborative of all. Two days of very interesting presentations and a very productive round table.

In this two-days event, we had been honored by the delegates of the following institutions :

United Nations University (UNU)
Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
Government of Brazil
Government of Paraguay
International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA)
European Federation of Medical Informatics (EFMI)
Free Software Community : Brodtec, Domatix, FSF, NaN, Nextma and Thymbra

These two days have been very busy, with many great presentations and a fruitful round table, were we have set up goals to achieve in this year 2012, in terms of free software adoption in ehealth, standards, implementations, documentation, mobile integration and interoperability, among others.

Thanks to the United Nations delegates, to Raúl Zambrano from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and to Dr. Salleh, Dr. Syed and Dr. Nurhizam from United Nations University, Institute of Global Health, not only for their active role in their presentations and round table, but for sponsoring the event.

Thank you Inma, Anne, Thang, Manuel and Ludovic from Doctors without Borders. Having MSF among us is very motivating. You are an example to follow inside and outside the field. We all learn a lot from your experience and suggestions !

Team from IWEEE 2012 – Granada

Thank you to the representatives of Latin America governments. Cesar Brod, from the government of Brazil, who has been present since the first edition of IWEEE, and the hosts of IWEEE Brazil for all these years. Thank you all to our friends from the government of Paraguay, to Nicolas Caballero who proposed the IWEEE in Granada, and to Dr. Gamarra, who was the delegate of Paraguay Ministry of Health at the round table. This shows how the South has taken the lead in adopting Free Software.

Ironically, there was nobody from the Andalusian Autonomous Government (Junta de Andalucía). Hopefully next time we’ll have them. It would have been nice to share and discuss with them what is being done in e-health using Free Software.

Thank you Thomas Karopka and Etienne Saliez, also “founding fathers” of IWEEE, whose contribution and participation since the first edition has been key for the increasing success of IWEEE. Thank you Frank Lievens (Medetel) for coming over and for promoting the conference over these years !

Thanks to the Free Software community, represented by Joice Käfer (Brodtec); Albert Cervera (NaN); Carlos Sánchez; Pablo José (FSF);Nacho, Angel and Roberto (Domatix), and Adbrahman from NEXTMA, from Morocco. We need to keep on growing this community to be able to deliver solutions to more institutions and improve the quality of the current eHealth systems.

Last but not least, thanks to Selene and Cristina, who made sure everything went as planned !

IWEEE has become the reference and meeting point for Free Software in Health, and it’s all thanks to you. Personally, I had a great time in Granada and learned a lot from all of you !

I’m looking forward to seeing all of you in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in IWEEE 2013 . We’ll also wait for our UNU-IIGH and Brazilian friends for specific dates in IWEEE Kuala Lumpur and Brazil for this year.

We’ll be uploading the pictures from the two days and night. We will also upload the presentations to the IWEEE homepage shortly.

GNU Health en el Instituto de Previsión Social y Ministerio de Salud Pública de Paraguay

29 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by Luis Falcon in GNU solidario

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fsf, gnu, GNU solidario, health, IIGH, MSPBS, Naciones Unidas, Paraguay, Salud Pública, UNU

El sábado regresamos de Paraguay, donde fuimos invitados por el Gabinete Civil de la Presidencia de la República (Nicolás Caballero – Coordinador de Innovación Tecnológica – ) y por el departamento de informática del Instituto de Previsión Social ( Ana Ayala – CIO de la Dirección Informática – y Rosa González – Líder del departamento informático de Salud – ), para presentar GNU Health , el sistema Libre de Gestión Hospitalaria y de Salud.

Me alegra ver como Paraguay adopta Software Libre en sus sistemas de Salud Pública , en equipo, desde el Gabinete de la Presidencia, el Instituto de Previsión Social (IPS) y el Ministerio de Salud Pública y Bienestar Social (MSPBS).

Actualmente Paraguay encara la informática médica como un bien público, inseparable del contexto de Salud Pública.

En el hospital Dr. Emilio Cubas. El centro de salud más grande de Paraguay

Pasamos dos días en Asunción, visitando las diferentes clínicas y hospitales, así como en reuniones con los profesionales de la salud y del gobierno. En estas reuniones, Nicolás Caballero nos explicó las resoluciones que el gobierno de Paraguay está tomando para la adopción de software libre en salud pública.

Nicolás Caballero, Julio Perrota, Ana Ayala, Nelson Caballero, Rosa González y la Dra Carmen Frutos

Luis Falcón, Nurhizam Safie, Cristina Melgosa, Rosa González y Ana Ayala

Después de visitar distintos centros de salud, nos reunimos con el equipo de informática, con quienes discutimos detalles técnicos de GNU Health, como el entorno de programación, seguridad, escalabilidad y reporting. También nos mostraron su centro de datos donde brindan soporte a todo el país.

Explicando detalles técnicos de GNU Health en el Hospital General

En la clínica Nanawa: Nurhizam Safie, Luis Falcón, Cristina Melgosa, María Victoria Benítez

El Doctor Nurhizam Safie, de la Universidad de las Naciones Unidas, Instituto Internacional de Salud Global (UNU-IIGH), partner de GNU Solidario, nos mostró implementaciones de GNU Health en Asia, África y Latinoamérica.

Nurhizam enfatizó el compromiso de las UNU – el brazo académico de las Naciones Unidas – con GNU Health y su posible implementación en el sistema de salud pública de Paraguay, como medio de universalidad la salud. Al día de hoy, la Universidad de las Naciones unidas provee capacitación en GNU Health.

Dr. Nurhizam Safie de las Naciones Unidas en su presentación de GNU Health en IPS

Parte del equipo de informática en el hospital central

Rosa González, líder del departamento de sistemas informáticos de salud, nos llevó a recorrer los distintos centros de salud, y sus departamentos. Entre ellos : Farmacia, Laboratorio, citas, hospitalización y diagnóstico por imágenes.

Rosa explicó a su equiopo la licencia GPL ( GNU General Public License), por lo que ellos tienen toda la libertad de usar y parametrizar GNU Health con el fin de adecuarlo a sus necesidades. Recalqué la importancia de trabajar con la comunidad, porque ellos son parte de la comunidad y aportarán valor agregado al proyecto. GNU Health es el resultado del esfuerzo de equipos multi-disciplinarios y multi-culturales.

En el hospital Geriátrico

Nurhizam, Cristina Melgosa and Rosa González en el salón de entrada del IPS

El viernes al mediodía fuimos invitados por la Dra. Graciela Gamarra, Directora General de Información Estratégica en Salud, del Ministerio de Salud Pública y Bienestar Social. Julio Galeana nos mostró los desarrollos que ha realizado el ministerio en software libre en epidemiología.

Conversamos sobre la posibilidad de integrar los sistemas actuales con GNU Health, y su enlace con el sistema de epidemiología actual.

Aprovechando para almorzar

Quiero agradecer al Gobierno de Paraguay por su invitación y hospitalidad, en particular a Rosa González, Ana Ayala y Nicolás Caballero, quienes desde IWEEE Brasil mostraron su interés por llevar a cabo esta reunión. Gracias a Juan Carlos Ávalos y el equipo de logística por hacernos sentir como en casa !

Hoy Latinoamércia es un punto de referencia en la adopción de Software Libre en administración y salud pública, brindando equidad y universalidad en salud a sus habitantes.

Por último, gracias a Richard Stallman, padre del software libre, quien habló del proyecto con Nicolás Caballero en su momento y nos refirió.

Acerca de GNU Health

GNU Health es el sistema Gestión Hospitalaria y de Información de salud de Software Libre que ofrece las siguientes funciones :

Expediente Médico Electrónico (EMR)
Sistema de Gestión Hospitalaria (HIS)
Sistema de Información de Salud (Epidemiología)

GNU Health es parte de GNU Solidario, una ONG que implementa soluciones de Salud y Educación mediante software libre.

GNU Health es software oficial del sistema GNU, adoptado por Richard Stallman y la Free Software Foundation. Las Naciones Unidas, por medio del Instituto Internacional de Salud Global, capacita y promueve el uso de GNU Health en los países donde tienen presencia.

Gobiernos con GNU Health en sus Portales

Brasil : Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB)
Comunidad Europea : OSOR / JoinUp

Página principal : health.gnu.org

GNU Health at Paraguay Ministry of Public Health

26 Saturday Nov 2011

Posted by Luis Falcon in GNU Health, GNU solidario, HMIS, Public Health

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fsf, gnu, GNU Health, GNU solidario, HMIS, IIGH, IPS, MSPBS, Paraguay, Public Health, UNU

I just got back from Paraguay, where we were invited by Mr. Nicolás Caballero from the Paraguayan Government to talk about GNU Health at the Social Security Institute (IPS – Instituto de Previsión Social ) and Ministry of Public Health .

It’s great to see how Paraguay is adopting Free Software in the Public Health System, working as a team, from the Presidency office, the Social Security Institute (IPS) and the Ministry of Public Health (MSPBS).

I noticed how the government conceives Health informatics as a public good, an integral component of Public Health.

At Dr. Emilio Cubas Hospital. The largest health center in Paraguay

We spent two non-stop days in Asunción, capital of Paraguay, visiting the different health centers and having meetings with health officials. In those meetings, Nicolas Caballero explained the latest and concrete resolutions that the Paraguayan government is taking on Free Software adoption in public health care.

Nicolas Caballero and Social Security Institute (IPS) members

Luis Falcón, Nurhizam Safie, Cristina Melgosa, Rosa González and Ana Ayala (director of Informatics) from IPS

After visiting the different health centers, we had a meeting with the information system team, with whom we discussed the technical details about GNU Health, such as the programming environment, security, scalability and reporting.

Explaining technical details about GNU Health at the General Hospital

At Clinica Nanawa

Dr. Nurhizam Safie, from the United Nations University, Institute of Global Health explained the partnership with GNU Solidario, and implementation cases of GNU Health in Asia, Africa and Latinamerica.

Nurhizam stressed the commitment of the UNU – the academic branch of the United Nations – with GNU Health and the implementation in the Paraguayan Public Health system, as a way of delivering universality in health care. Today UNU provides training and capacity building in GNU Health implementations.

Dr. Nurhizam Safie from United Nations University, talking about the UNU commitment to the project

Part of the Informatics department team at Central Hospital led by Rosa González

Ms. Rosa González, Social Security Institute chief of the informatics department, gave us an extensive tour throughout different health institutions and their departments. Among them: Pharmacy, Laboratory, Appointments, Inpatient administration and Imaging.

Rosa explained to her team that GNU Health is licensed under GPL, the GNU General Public License, so they have all the freedom to use and custumize GNU Health to fit their needs. I stressed the importance of working with the community, so the health informatics team can always ask questions in public forums and share with us their developments and bug fixes. GNU Health is the result of many contributions and feedback from an international community and multi-disciplinary teams.

At the Geriatric Hospital

Dr Nurhizam, Cristina Melgosa and Rosa González at IPS entrance hall

On Friday afternoon we were invited by Dr. Graciela Gamarra, General Director of Strategic Health Information Systems, from the Health Ministry (Ministerio de Salud Pública y Bienestar Social). They showed us their current epidemiology systems that are being built on Free Software.

We also discussed on integrating all the current systems with GNU Health, and link it to the current epidemiology engine.

Taking a break

I want to thank the government of Paraguay for inviting us and for the hospitality, they made us feel at home.

But most importantly, I want to thank the government of Paraguay for the commitment with Free Software in Public Health. Latin America is today a leader in the adoption of Free Software in public administrations, delivering equity and universality in health care for their habitants.

Last but not least, thanks to Richard Stallman, who referred GNU Health to Nicolás Caballero , chief technology innovation officer of the Presidency office. Thanks Nicolás for making this possible !

About GNU Health
GNU Health is a free Health and Hospital Information System that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)

Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

GNU Health is an official GNU Package and is part of GNU Solidario. GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health to emerging economies with free software.

GNU Health is the Hospital Information System chosen by the United Nations International Institute of Global Health.

Main site : health.gnu.org

Governments hosting GNU Health through their portals :

European Commission (EU) , OSOR

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB)

GNU Health at Encuentro Nacional de Tecnología da Informação -ENTI-

30 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by Luis Falcon in events, GNU Health, GNU solidario, Public Health

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education, ehealth, en, free software, fsf, gnu, GNU Health, GNU solidario, health, tryton

Brasilia: National Congress

These last two weeks have been very busy !! We went from Latinoware (Foz do Iguaçu) where we organized IWEEE 2011 Brazil: Momentum to the Encuentro Nacional de Tecnología da Informação (ENTI) in Brasilia.

Luis Falcón

The event, organized by Ministério do Planejamiento, Ministerío das Cidades, and Secretaria de Relações Institucionaias, gathered parallel activities:

Juscelino Kubitschek’s Bridge

– II Encontro Nacional de Tecnologia da Informação para os Municípios
– II Encontro Nacional de Qualidade de Software
– I Encontro de Governança em Tecnologia da Informação
– I Encontro Nacional de Dados Abertos
– Pré-Conferência Nacional de Governo Eletrônico

GNU Solidario was invited in order to present GNU Health on the 26th. Luis Falcón gave an introductory speech about the ONG, the projects and GNU Health.

Luis Falcón and Cesar Brod

At the presentation participated also Cesar Brod (Coordinator of the Brazilian Public Software Portal, Ministry of Planning, Brazil), who explained how they met and how Luis`s work ,with GNU Solidario, contribuited to the spread of Free Software, Education and Health.

Presentation of GNU Health and GNU Solidario

The introductory speeches created the perfect atmosphere for a round table that was animated by a strong participation from the public ! There were people from the Argentinian government, from Brazilian Ministry of Health, medical professionals from different hospitals, universities and IT specialists.

The public had many questions

Unfortunately time really flew … There were too many questions and too little time !! As you know, you are more than welcome to get in touch with us and send us your questions, doubts, concerns …

Roberto Sahakian – Jorge Luis Cabezas (Argentinian Government) and C. Melgosa

Our special thanks to Cesar Brod and Corinto Meffe (Director of Department of Integration Information System, Brazil) for all the help, support, organization and … for the translating !


Luis Falcón and Corinto Meffe

Going to the event !

For more info: health@gnusolidario.org

GNU Health 1.4.1 released

30 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by Luis Falcon in Uncategorized

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ehealth, EMR, en, free software, fsf, gnu, GNU Health, GNU solidario, HMIS, Public Health, tryton

GNU Solidario is happy to announce the release of GNU Health 1.4.1, in which we have incorporated support for PyPI, the Python Package Index

This version is compatible with the latest tryton release (2.2.0). Now GNU Health is also a set of python modules, fully integrated to the Python community.

Thanks to the magic of pip, and the help of the Tryton community ( Cedric Krier, et al ), installing the latest GNU Health version is as easy as running

pip install –user trytond_health_profile

This will install the requirements ( the tryton server and all the standard GNU Health modules ) automatically and in your “$HOME/.local” directory. I will be updating the installation process at the wiki today.
The main site is the GNU Savannah where all the development and discussion takes place.

There are many improvements, bug fixes and news features, some of them :

CalDav compatibility (it allows complex calendar views and settings for appointments and hospitalizations)
Support for JSON RPC protocol
Fully Tryton 2.2 compatible
Enhanced Medication form
New Medicament categories
Medication pregnancy category
Included the latest WHO essential medicines (17th edition)
New translation engine (to be used with .po format)
Improve Laboratory model and functionality

Thanks to all of you for contributing with your code, testing, translating and documenting the project !

About GNU Health

GNU Health (formerly known as “Medical”) is a free (GPL license), Health and Hospital Information System that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)

Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

GNU Health is an official GNU Package and is part of GNU Solidario. GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health to emerging economies with free software.

GNU Health is the Hospital Information System chosen by the United Nations International Institute of Global Health.

Main site : health.gnu.org

Governments hosting GNU Health through their portals :

European Commission (EU) , OSOR

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB)

GNU Health Version 1.4.0

27 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by Luis Falcon in Uncategorized

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en, free software, fsf, gnu, GNU Health, GNU solidario, savannah, tryton

GNU Solidario is happy to announce the release of GNU Health 1.4.0 (stable) for Tryton 2.2

There are many improvements and new features, some of them are :

CalDav compatibility (it allows complex calendar views and settings for appointments and hospitalizations)
Enhanced Medication form
New Medicament categories
Medication pregnancy category
Fully Tryton 2.2 compatible
Included the latest WHO essential medicines (17th edition)
New translation engine (to be used with .po format)
Improve Laboratory model and functionality

Thanks to all of you for contributing with your code, testing, translating and documenting the project !

You can download Health from the official site at Savannah : https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/health

Please report any bugs you find in GNU Savannah.

GNU Health Calendar Module

13 Thursday Oct 2011

Posted by Luis Falcon in Uncategorized

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calendar module, fsf, gnu, GNU Health, thymbra.com, tryton

We have just released the Calendar Module for GNU Health.

This module allows appointments to be viewed from any calendar client that supports the CalDAV protocol, like Sunbird/Iceowl, Thunderbird/Icedove, iPhone or Android Clients.

Doctors can use this tool from a desktop computer, notebook or mobile device to manage their appointments. The calendar can also be used by the receptionist to visualize all the doctor’s appointments and make suew that different patients were not being scheduled at the same time.