Re: [Gnumed-devel] question about gnumed and database

[Karsten Hilbert]

Hi Omar,

> I came across your project while reading a classmate's 
> article in the USyd Medical Journal.
Can we see the artice anywhere on the net ?

> To get to the point:
> Although the main wards have a state of the art network,  some sections 
> such as the Vascular Lab are grossly underfunded and still running win98 
> and some antiquated vascular database and are very unstable. Needless to 
> say, it's been a nightmare to try and network the machines in the lab 
> with the rest of the hospital and recently one month's worth of patient 
> data was permanently lost. I'm also told that  they haven't had a proper 
> IT administrator for 2 years now!
If you want to do something for the patients make sure they
have proper paper backup procedures in place. I would stay at
pole's length from their machines. You'll get yourself into
trouble. Another thing you could do is lobby for proper IT
support staff but that's about it.

> First, can gnuMed or some other open source database be adapted for use 
> in the vascular lab?
Yes but it is going to take work. Once you start it and they
actually let you get near the machines you'll be hooked.
You'll have no one to take over support after you leave the
lab (when your option ends) lest you setup your own company
for doing so.

> Second, 
> do you think it's feasible to run Fedora or some other form of Linux on 
> the Vasc Lab computer and network them seamlessly with the hospital's 
> Windows server
Technically yes.

> I should also mention that my first degree was in EE (control) from UC 
> Santa Barbara, hence my interest in all things technical (I get to play 
> with the doppler machines in the vasc lab). Programming is not my forte 
> but I know some basic C. From browsing through your website, it seems 
> Python is the way to go these days. Is that true for database as well?
I know this sounds rude and I'm sorry to say that but it's my
best advice: Instead of getting involved too deeply make sure
people don't start thinking of you of "the guy to call when
things go awry" or you'll end up being "the guy who played with
our machines and thereby broke everything so that's why we lost
all the data" when something random provokes catastrophic
failure.

Just my 2 cents,
Karsten
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