[Health] GNUmed for OLPC

[Edward Cherlin]

On Sat, May 3, 2008 at 10:21 AM, Sebastian Hilbert
<sebastian.hilbert at gmx.net> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
>  I am very new to the OLPC initiative.

Welcome.

>  I am a doctor by profession and medical
>  software developer by choice. I am involved with the GNUmed medical record
>  software. I am wondering if you see any use in tests of this software in OLPC
>  environments.

One question is whether we can integrate GNUmed with the telemedicine
kits that some of us and other developers are working on. There is a
project in Google Summer of Code to use Measure for recording data
from a low-cost EKG device.

We have contacts with a number of other Open Source health care
software providers. You can find many of them on the SCALE web site at
http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale6x/conference-info/schedules/. Some
of the presentation videos are now available from there.

>  GNUmed (wiki.gnumed.de) is free software and is written in python and wxpython
>  (GTK). It usually connects to a postgresql server but could also be made
>  store its data in a sqlite database.
>
>  I admit I know very little about medical IT needs in OLPC environments. maybe
>  it is just pure overkill and out of scope.
>
>  I imagine two possible uses. The individual OLPC could be used to enter very
>  basic demographic information so organizations involved get a picture of who
>  is in need of medical care (in general). the hardware (microphone and camera
>  can be used to assess medical condtitions such as skin conditions or wounds
>  and could then be assessed by more centralized medical personell like in a
>  city. The use of Wifi coupled with asynchronous wifi networks (see
>  http://www.nilshettich.com/olpcblog/) could transfer medical/health
>  information both ways.

A number of organizations are interested in community-based data
gathering for mapping and other information projects. Your software
has obvious public health applications.

>  Maybe this is just my Western thinking. In case this is way off the needs in
>  OLPC environments just discard this message.

You must think as you do, not being anybody else than yourself. That
is not the problem, which only arises if you fail to ask those whom
you would help how your proposal would fit with what they really need.
Of course, you still have to find out how to present your proposal in
terms that make sense to those people.

>  I am greatful for any reply.
>  --
>  Sebastian Hilbert
>  Leipzig / Germany
>  [www.gnumed.de]  -> PGP welcome, HTML ->/dev/null
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>



-- 
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay