[Gnumed-devel] GNUmed - some thoughts

[Sebastian Hilbert]

GNUmed is quite interesting. Over time I have been contacted by many different 
groups, individuals and organizations. All of them see GNUmed fit for some of 
their intentions. Once GNUmed would be ready that is.

In other words some of them want to achieve goals *now* others have needed 
many years to achieve without  realizing that there is an inverse correlation 
between effort and time.

In my view GNUmed is a project which is to create an application that will 
help doctors to better care. I don't believe it is possible to use the GNUmed 
project to immediately free yourself from the chains (software vendors) we 
have accepted for too long.

In the face of changing medical systems and economical pressure let's not 
hinder GNUmed development by letting our decisions being led by short terms 
goals alone.

GNUmed is like medicine. There is no right or wrong way. There is no right or 
wrong development model.

The current model does not offer the benefit of short term goals ( competing 
with established medical software). Maybe that is where some of our arguments 
originate from. Different short term goals. 

Taking into account that most of our interaction is based on assuming each 
other's intentions I have a strong feeling that GNUmed will still be around 
in 5 or 10 years , no matter how many vendors have supposedly enslaved the 
medical community or how many governments have dictated our dialy work.  

On a more personal note. I am currently employed in a high profile hospital 
which shows me daily how much their current software sucks. Having virtually 
no time left to drive GNUmed development I more and more believe that 
GNUmed's development work should be done by people who get paid to do the 
work. 

It's kind of a way to evaluate commitment. When I see people suffering from 
atrial fibrillation I tend to choose treatment strategy by how much people 
suffer from atrial fibrillation. In my experience 90% of the medical 
community does not suffer too much from being forced to use commercial 
software not being developed by doctors. As long as that is the case no money 
is there to pay a company to actually do the development work.

So what can you do meanwhile ? Raise public awareness. Educate your collegues 
and show them alternatives. Grass root marketing. Our concepts are rather 
new. It takes some time for the medical community to get used to new 
concepts.

A few words on what I think we achieved until now.

1.) We have show that is possible to find and organize a group of doctors who 
constantly focus on creating a software tool that will help them to better 
patient care

2.) We have shown that it is possible to abstract that software to fit 
different medical systems.

3.) We have shown that current computer technology is available to cater for 
different languages and medical systems.

4.) We have shown that there is indeed a need to change currently available 
software.

5.) We have been able to demonstrate a reference client that shows off some of 
the concepts that have been researched for some time.

6.) We have yet to establish the fact that GNUmed's development can be driven 
by non business entities.  

7.) We have diluted from various mailing list arguments that concepts and 
ideas behind the reference client need to be documented far more extensive 
than what we done until now.

8.) I have yet to show that it is possible to base a successful business on 
GNUmed's concepts

9.) There is no such thing a 'the GNUmed'. There is a reference client and 
there is room for extensions and or forks.

10.) I have missed some points and have said enough.
 
Hopefully I have been able to explain why I believe there is no single GNUmed 
application, no short term competing with existing vendors and no right or 
wrong development and there will be no such thing as a 'feature complete 
GNUmed software'. 

One last paragraph on my view on development models. There is many ways to to 
it and two are quite common. First is code now and redo later is neccessary. 
Second is think now and code later. I know that both ways are being followed 
by people on this list. As long as this is the case let's not fight over what 
can be achieved in whatever timeframe.  Simply follow your modus operandi and 
see how far you get.

Disclaimer:
The above are some thoughts that explain my view on the GNUmed project. Since 
there is no formal GNUmed management team I can only stress that those are my 
personal experiences and don't represent any official statement of the GNUmed 
project. I encourage anyone on this list to voice their views. That way we 
will not be forced to assume each other's intentions.

-- 
Sebastian Hilbert 
Leipzig / Germany
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