[Gnumed-devel] Gnumed FAQs

[James Busser]

Hi all

We are further developing FAQs for gnumed.org:

        •       What is GNUMed?
        •       What is GNUMed NOT?
        •       Who is GNUMed for?
        •       What computer system(s) will it run on?
        •       Is GNUMed free? Why?
        •       What more should I know about Open Source?
        •        What might it cost to run?
        •        When might GNUMed be ready for use?
        •        Can I be notified of significant GNUMed progress?
        •        How can I learn more and perhaps contribute?
        •        Why is GNUMed so hard to install? ;-)

Here are some draft answers for "What is GNUMed" and "Who is GNUMed 
for?".
"What is GNUMed NOT" will appear courtesy of Karsten, whom I would ask 
along with any others to advise anything they would like made clear.
- PS have to take someone to the hospital tomorrow --- hopefully a 
short affair, but FYI, in case I'm delayed in replying.

 What is GNUMed?

GNUMed is the name for both a GNU Open Source Project and its intended 
outcome, a suite of software (and a community) to support medical 
practice, using tried-and-true technology. It will start out with 
record-keeping, but is eventually supposed to cover all aspects of 
medical practice, and is supposed to interface well with 3rd-party 
software. For the more technical, it tries to do things "cleanly", but 
takes a pragmatic rather than purist approach. Currently, data is 
accessed via business objects implemented in Python directly accessing 
the pgSQL RDBMS, but it is planned to access much of the data via 
business objects accessing XML-RPC servers (your middleware, if you 
will) which, in turn, will access the data stores.

What is GNUMed NOT?
< suggestions welcome>

Who is GNUMed for?

GNUMed will be most suited to physicians in community practice, 
especially general practice, but may suit others who provide a degree 
of comprehensive care (general internists, pediatricians, others). 
GNUMed will operate on networks of a few to many users, and will 
support secure, remote access. GNUMed will also operate on a single 
computer. This makes possible initial examination of the software, and 
may suit physicians or nurse clinicians serving remote, underserved or 
disadvantaged areas that afford limited infrastructure.