Re: [Health] Does gnu health support medical devices like scanners etc?

[Luis Falcon]

Hi Bram
On Sat, 12 Apr 2014 12:14:15 +0200
Bram Mertens <address@hidden> wrote:

> Thanks for the feedback.  I'll talk to my friend to get an idea of
> what they use now, whether they have any kind of integration at
> present to see if this could potentially be useful for him.
> 
> Unfortunately this means that he will still need his Windows clients
> and server for the closed apps he's using.  What is the experience of
> running Gnu Health on Windows?  I doubt I'll be able to convince him
> to install another server.
> 
There are Free/Open Source solutions to view Medical images. For
instance, GNU Health can use Aeskulap or Gingko for DICOM images, which
is the format most CT / MRI scanners use today. We have used it from
GNU Health without problems.

If your hospital produces images in the DICOM format, then GNU HEalth
can read them.

Best
> Regards
> 
> Bram
> 
> On Mon, Apr 7, 2014 at 7:28 AM, Chris <address@hidden> wrote:
> >> Several dentist in our region have recently suffered a virus
> >> attack on their Windows XP clients.  The problems initially
> >> manifested themselves when they could no longer open the software
> >> they use to process their X-ray images.
> >> Apparently upgrading to Windows 8 would mean that they have to buy
> >> a proprietary driver for this X-ray device which costs about 8000
> >> EUR!
> >
> > Wow! I'm sorry to hear that. It is becoming increasingly difficult
> > to handle the extraordinary cost of medical devices and software.
> >
> >> If gnu health can support such devices while at the same time offer
> >> improved facilities to keep track of patient records and the like I
> >> may be able to convince him and his colleagues to give gnu health a
> >> try.
> >
> > If you mean, can gnu health store medical images? The answer is
> > yes. If you mean, does gnu health support specific devices? The
> > answer is no. I think you have a great point: many of these devices
> > (x-ray machines, etc.) are locked-in and closed. The subtle trap of
> > software and device lock-in is especially worrisome in the medical
> > environment. The solution, it seems to me, is loosely-coupled
> > design.
> >
> > GNU Health is built on top of an application framework (Tryton)
> > which handles the lower-level bits of user interface, data
> > management, etc... and everything below that level (the OS,
> > hardware drivers, filesystem, etc.) is mostly invisible to gnu
> > health. Closed hardware firmware is a generally difficult problem
> > and plagues every place you find embedded systems (which is
> > everywhere nowadays). Think routers, ATMs, airport xray machines,
> > voting machines, etc. Writing open source drivers is very important
> > (and difficult!) but, I believe, beyond the scope of this project.
> >
> > I hope I informed, even though I'm sorry to say that I didn't
> > reassure much.
> >
> > -C
> >
> 
> 



-- 
Luis Falcon
GNU Health : The Free Health and Hospital Information System
http://health.gnu.org
@gnuhealth