[Gnumed-devel] Some Pythonic open source tools for epidemiology and public health

[Tim Churches]

Developmental versions of some tools for population health epidemiology and 
public 
health are now available under a free, open source software license - see 
http://www.netepi.org (please note that the release notes for the NetEpi 
Analysis tool 
can be found in the documentation section of the project web page on 
SourceForge).

The current development team (comprising two members: Andrew McNamara and 
myself) will be working on NetEpi fairly intensively over the first half of 
2005,
with a view to a "Version 1.0" release of the tools by mid-year. The NetEpi 
Analysis 
(NEA) tool may be of particular interest to the GnuMed project, as it could be 
the 
basis for a population health analysis and reporting system for GnuMed data, 
either 
at the individual practice or clinic level, or for pooled data at regional or 
national (or 
even international) level - particularly as NEA matures over the next six 
months.

Please note that all the NetEpi code is licensed under a slightly modified 
version of 
the Mozilla Public License 1.1 (changed to make it suitable for Australian 
law). 
Unfortunately this means that NetEpi code cannot be directly copied into GPLed 
GnuMed modules (or v-v), but there is no barrier imposed by either license to 
GnuMed modules importing NetEpi Analysis modules at runtime and calling its 
API, 
or interfacing to it via other means such as RPCs - I have formal legal advice 
that 
such runtime importing or interfacing is perfectly OK (at least under 
Australian law). 

Wishing everyone a safe and happy Festive Season and a free and open source 
New Year,

Tim C
Sydney, Australia