Open Source resources

This page has been set up with the contributions of different mailing lists, among which OpenHealth, FreeSw and Medecine-Linux.

Read this document if you want to contribute.

Open Source

Open Source software is a piece of software whose source code is accessible and which distribution allows to preserve the Open Source characteristics of the original work. Examples of Open Source software are the operating system Linux (after the name of the Fin Linus Torvalds), the web server Apache, Netscape Navigator but also numerous mathematical and scientific software libraries. The Health sector is also represented with an electronic healthcare record (GEHR, http://www.gehr.org) or object models from Synapses. The department of Veteran Affairs in USA has also funded for the last 15 years the development of DHCP/Vista, an electronic healthcare record system, with success in terms of dissemination in the US.

Open Source is a paradigm shift with respect to Intellectual Property Rights more than anything else: the user has access to the source of a piece of software, of documentation or even of training material which are made public under different types of licenses which have in common the concept of copyright which is only used to protect the authorship and ownership. More on the types of licenses (such as GPL, LGPL, BSD, MPL to cite a few) can be found at http://www.opensource.org. Although access to source code is granted, it only represents a right to do so, and in no way an obligation. To use an analogy, the owner or driver of a car has the right to access the car engine but has not the obligation to fix it if broken and this can apply to cars under guarantee as well as used cars.

There are several advantages to the Open Source model. Without entering into much details, here are a few: higher reliability, better peer-reviewed code, no proprietary standards, no vendor lock-in, development speed, lower overhead. This model pressures for innovation and allows other types of business models such as integration, services and training.

In the health care domain, it would mean that a better, less-fragmented solution (HIS, EHR, ...) would be available to all (hospitals, GP, ...), that software companies would compete on the basis of services (maintenance, support,  integration, training, customisation, ...). This is the technical side of Open Source.

Proposals of law begin to appear in France (more recent updates on B. Lang's pages) and Germany in order to oblige public procurement to be done under the Open Source model. This is the political side of Open Source.

More Open Source resources can also be found at http://www.openhealth.com/en/healthlinks.html

It should be noted that Open Source is part of the vision of the IST advisory group and has become a priority of the work programme 2000.

Open Source resources related to Health

• [EHR][OS for US citizens][US][English]DHCP/VISTA (http://www.hardhats.org)
DHCP/VISTA is a generic, highly portable framework to support Eletronic Health Records. The DHCP (Decentralized Hospital Computer Program) project was started in 1982 by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. VISTA (http://www.va.gov/About_VA/Orgs/vha/vista.htm) is the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture which include DHCP and other applications. It is comprised of
• a Kernel, application framework based on M and File Manager, contains a number of building management supplies including device, menu, programming, operations, security/auditing, task, user, and system management.
• M (alternative name for MUMPS), an ANSI computer language which gives primitives for database and operating system support. A free M project is currently going on.
• File Manager - Database management written in M.
• tools, programmer toolkits
• ...
Development Status: started
License: Freedom of Information Act
Operating System: M
Programming Language: M
Topic: EHR
• [EHR][TK][ML][Finland][English]FixIt (http://www.uku.fi/atkk/fixit/english.html)
FixIT: Systems development toolkits for FileMan databases of the DHCP/VISTA project. FixIT is a portfolio of systems development toolkits for client/server applications based on VA's FileMan Data Base Management System at the server. The client-server communication is currently based on VA's Remote Procedure Call Broker. Delphi-FixIT is based on Inprise's (formerly Borland) Delphi at the client side, and intended for Windows clients. Web-FixIT is a functionally equivalent toolkit based on the web browser technology, Java and Inprise's JBuilder. International versions of both toolkits are available as freeware. FixIT is particularly intended for modernizing existing departmental information systems in hospitals, as well as for developing new ones.

http://www.makropilotti.fi/englanti/index.html
Development Status: mature (in regular use since 1998)
License: freeware
Operating System: M (server), Java and Windows (client)
Programming Language: M (server) Java, Delphi/Object Pascal (client)
Topic: EHR, toolkits
Authors: Mikko Korpela, Juha Mykkänen (Delphi), Hellevi Ruonamaa (Server), Marko Sormunen (Java)

• [EU][not yet OS?][EHR][Australia][English]GEHR, the Good Electronic Health Record (http://www.gehr.org/)
Evolving electronic health record architecture designed to be comprehensive, portable and medico-legally robust. It has been developed from the Good European Health Record (http://www.chime.ucl.ac.uk/HealthI/GEHR/) project requirements statement and object model- the most comprehensive requirements documents ever developed for the electronic health record. This website is a public resource for documents and resources that have been used to build implementations of this record.

Linked resources: http://www.gehr.org/technical/architecture/archetypes.pdf, XML example developed by the Titanium team at
DSTC in Queensland (http://www.dstc.com)

Related projects: support measure to disseminate GEHR EHCR-SupA (http://www.chime.ucl.ac.uk/HealthI/EHCR-SupA)

[news][May2000]We have not decided on the wording of the licence, and may just go with LGPL, but you will appreciate that it is worth considering this kind of thing properly before committing. Once this is done, the code will be released. We have not hurried to do this because I believe it is preferable to release something which is far enough developed to understand what it is. The Good European HR was the predecessor in the EC, and in fact people over there working on successor projects now think of it as the Good Electronic HR. The "European" is a historical thing now. But it does server to remind that GEHR is designed for multi-lingual environment, where EHRs are routinely passed across language, ethnic and legislative boundaries. The database/persistent storage OSTORE library should also be available on the deepthought site when it comes online under OS-like license. [August2000]This means it should compile under SmallEiffel, but no-one here has yet had the resources to try it. Alternatively, I (really) suggest getting the private (or commercial - it's not much) version of ISE Eiffel. The browsing IDE environment is the only (nice) way to browse the classes. The
alternative is to look at the online Eiffel code which we will update soon (you can already see the interfaces on the website, but without the code); this HTML tree is like
a pre-browsed version of all classes in the system, and so is like having the ISE IDE, when you really only have Netscape (!).

Development Status: going-on
Intended Audience:
License:
Operating System:
Programming Language: Eiffel
Topic: EHR
Mailing list: GEHR
Contact: GEHR
Authors: Sam Heard, Peter Schloeffel, Tom Beale, Jeff Boulton, Jose Colado, David Ingram, David Lloyd, Dipak Kalra, Lesley Southgate, Richard Dixon, Penny Grubb, Stan Shepherd, Ray Jordan

• [EU][OS][OL][ML][English]OpenGalen (http://www.opengalen.org)
GALEN is a radical new technology for medical coding and terminology. Designed as a completely new kind of infrastructure for clinical application builders, it will enable the 'clinical' to be put back into Clinical Workstations. Multilingual. OpenGALEN is dedicated to bringing GALEN to the world as an 'open source' resource. GALEN is the results of the European projects GALEN and GALEN-IN-USE. In use by Prodigy (UK) - drug ontology, WHO and CCAM (France) - surgical procedures.
Development Status: going-on
Intended Audience:
License: Open Source
Operating System:
Programming Language:
Topic: Ontology
Mailing list:
Contact:
Authors:
• [OS][OL][English]LOINC (http://www.mcis.duke.edu/standards/termcode/loinc.htm)
LOINC (Logical Observation Identifiers, Names and Codes) is an ontology for identifying laboratory and clinical observations.
Development Status: going-on
Intended Audience:
License: freeware
Topic: Ontology
• [OS][WHO][Romania][English]SincroPAD (http://www.telemed.ro/sincromed/sincrodr.htm)
The SincroPAD is for public accessible (WHO agreement QCPH 030102).  The OBSQID, a WHO/EURO project (OBStetrical Quality Indicators and Data collection) promotes and supports quality management and development in perinatal care at all levels of the health care system.  OBSQID uses European quality indicators for data collection in order to compare, analyze and evaluate the structure, process and outcome of perinatal care. Resulting information can be used to identify "centres of excellence" and disseminate "best practices". The OBSQID site is in place http://www.who.dk/ch/obsquid/announce.htm and the PAD already is a new important player in the international quality indicators for data collection.SincroPAD is a tool for the automatically extraction of the PAD from OBSQID.REC files.
Development Status: going-on
Intended Audience:
License: freeware
Topic:
• [EU][Romania][English]Blacksea TeleDiab
Surveillance of diabetes patients. maybe OS. Based on GEHR and on BIS (Basic Information Sheet).
Development Status: going-on
Intended Audience:
Topic: Diabetes
• [EU][TM][English]IT-EDUCTRA (http://www.fundesco.es/it-eductra)
Information technology medical education and training.
• [GP]DocScope (http://www.openhealth.com/docscope)
DocScope will be a free medical information tool that is as natural and easy for physicians to use as the spreadsheet is for accountants. Application of XML technology to open source health care and standards development.  It is focussed on the "document view" of health care records and is designed to complement other views (database, object oriented APIs).
Mailing list at http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/docscope-en
• [VET]LabInfo
veterinary epidemiology information system for FAO http://www.fao.org/empres/tadinfo/ Translation to French by http://www.cirad.fr/
disease surveillance network for animals at http://www.sistema.it/labinfo
• [EU][TM][NU][English]NIGHTINGALE (http://nightingale.dn.uoa.gr/)
Nursing informatics; generic high level training in informatics for nurses.
• [EU][TK][OS][DICOM][Germany][English]OFFIS DICOM software (http://www.offis.de/projekte/dicom/project_dicom4.htm)
The OFFIS DICOM software is a collection of libraries and applications implementing large parts of the DICOM standard for medical image communication. It is comprised of DCMTK-DICOM and DICOMscope. The OFFIS DICOM tools are in use by the European project SAMTA, where ETIAM and KTU are the project partners responsible for software development. ETIAM also offers commercial DICOM tools that extend the OFFIS DICOM toolkit (Marco Eichelberg).
Development Status: mature
Intended Audience:
License: BSD-like open source license
Operating System: Windows 9x/NT/2000, Linux, Solaris, SunOS, OSF/1, AIX, IRIX, HP/UX, Ultrix and other Unix dialects.
Programming Language: C/C++
Topic:
Authors: OFFIS, (Marco Eichelberg,Jörg Riesmeier)
• [OS][ML][GP][US][English]FreeMed (http://www.freemed.org) (see also SourceForge)
Linux-based system for physician's offices (physician practice management (medical management) system).
The Freemed Project has members working on "alpha" test versions of "Laika" (FREEMED v1.0)  Freemed in a world wide project and was designed from inception to function in multiple languages. The software is coded in English.  However, programming is in progress within the project by members of the project for the following government and language requirements.  Italian, French, Spanish, German, Turkish, Korean.

On the basis of FreeMed, another project is based: The EMR for the handheld interface is the project I am working on right now at NLM. It uses PHP, MySQL, Apache, and is basically just accesses a database with FreeMED tables and then format the result set for the Avantgo browser. We've also added a MEDLINE parser so the MD can send out a request to MEDLINE and view the result set later on (or right there online if he has the connection) - Alvin B. Marcelo
Development Status: going-on
License: open source
Operating System: linux
Programming Language:
Topic:
Authors: Jeff Buchbinder, Franklin M. Valier

• [OS][US][English]PhotoSeek
Development project for medical image handling. PhotoSeek was formerly known as the Cloud Project). PhotoSeek is a replacement for conventional media-management (read: photo filing) software, such as Cumulus.
Development Status: going-on
License:
Operating System:
Programming Language:
Topic:
Authors:
• [EU][OS][English]STAR (http://www.mira.demon.co.uk/star/)
The results of the STAR European project will conform to the emerging RICHE standard for healthcare information systems and the emerging medical informatics standards from CEN TC251. There will be two types of results – conceptual and physical. The conceptual results will be an architecture and open interface specifications. Recognised by Freemed as interesting. Lot of architecture documents freely available.
Development Status:
License:
Operating System:
Programming Language:
Topic:
Authors:
• [EU][English]SYNEX (http://www.gesi.it/synex)
ones.
Development Status:
License:
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Topic:
Authors:
• [OS][GP][US][English]FreePM (http://www.freepm.org)
FreePM (Free Practice Management) is a web based physicians practice management application.
(comment from GNUMed)A free practice management software project. True open source. Very interesting, in some concepts quite similar to GNUMed, but more business orientated as compared to our clinical orientation. Uses PostgreSQL as database server as well.
Development Status:
License:
Operating System: PHP script, PostgreSQL
Programming Language:
Topic:
Authors: Tim Cook
• [OS][Germany][HL7][English]ProtoGen/HL7 (http://aurora.rg.iupui.edu/~gunther)
ProtoGen/HL7 is essentially a parser/builder generator that extracts it's rules from the HL7 standard document. The interface to the parser/builder is C++. Thus, the result of the generator is a C++ class library for the HL7 protocol. With the library you can build HL7 client/server applications or batch processors very easily. Very interesting site with links to other HL7 resources.

Development Status:
License: GPL
Operating System:
Programming Language: C++
Topic:
Authors: Gunther Schadow
• [OS][US][English]LAMDI (Linux Anesthesia Modular Devices Interface) (http://gasnet.med.yale.edu/lamdi/)
LAMDI project (Linux Anesthesia Modular Devices Interface) is a (international) Open Source project to develop software for real time use in the Operating Theatre by Anesthetists.
Development Status:
License:
Operating System: Linux
Programming Language:
Topic:
Authors: Stefan Harms
• [OS][US][PI][HL7][English]TeleMed (http://www.acl.lanl.gov/TeleMed), now renamed OpenMed (http://openmed.sourceforge.net)
Patient Index. Open collaborative health-care environment system. It supports the HL7 PIDS segment for searching and updating according to the PIDS specification. Reference implementation of the CorbaMed PIDS standard. The TeleMed web site has open-source, reference implementations of several CORBAmed services (PIDS, COAS, TQS, and RAD), all in Java.
Development Status:
License:
Operating System:
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Topic:
Authors: David Forslund
• [Australia][English]Littlefish (http://www.paninfo.com.au/intro/littlefishproject_homepage.htm) (see also http://www.littlefish.au.com)
To create a user friendly patient information and recall system on an open source basis with the focus on use  by  community based primary health care health organisations in the developing world or remote and rural areas or areas of  need. Littlefish has over 26 megabytes of text and more than 2 years of development. Littlefish is open source and all the code will be available - though the licence has yet to be decided by the project members. (Chris Fraser, May 2000)
Development Status:
Started: June 1998
License:
Operating System:
Programming Language:
Topic:
Mail List: http://www.egroups.com/list/lftalk/
Authors: Chris Fraser, Chris Fraser
• [OS][HL7][English]HL7_lib (http://hl7lib.sourceforge.net/)
Attempt to produce a simple, correct HL7 library that can be embeded in projects to enable rapid development of powerful tools and robust interfaces. I intend to provide the same interface in C, Perl and Tcl.
HL7 parser. HL7 is a good idea for an interchange format, but makes a lousy storage medium. Use whatever you think is the best for internal data storage, so long as you can map it to an interchange format like HL7. (That's why I think that in a way GEHR is a really good storage idea -- their mappings are excellent) (jeff b)
Development Status: started Jan 00?
License: GPL
Operating System:
Programming Language:
Topic:
Authors: James M. Rogers
• [OS][GP][Australia][English]GNUMed (http://www.hherb.com/gnumed) and http://www.gnumed.org
GNUMed, Paperless General Practice Project. Software package for paperless medical practice. Our project hasn't really taken off yet. What I have, is a chaotic pile of > 60 MB of source code snippets where I am trying out different configurations (e.g. forking servers, multi-threaded servers, SELECT based servers, thin and thick client response time test modules, im- and export modules from established packages into our software, different ER configurations on Postgres and Interbase, and a GTK+ based "model" client running on Linux. You can see some screenshots of the latter at http://www.hherb.com/gnumed (next week the web page will hopefully be pulled  down, overhauled and the CVS repository installed - then you will be able to download the source).

It will definitely include a DSM IV checklist to make diagnosing easier (I was trained as a surgeon and I still have a lot to learn in (acute) psych). I would have been interested in the DIS-IV, but could not find much online available yet. The ICD-9 tables are ready and implemented, but I didn't release it yet to the homepage (claening up, checkingthe headers). Currently I am trying to integrate the MINI (International Neuropsychiatric Interview ) http://medical-outcomes.com/pages/MINI/MINI/infomini.htm in the smartest possible way, but it has low priority at present. (Horst Herb, May00).
Development Status: started recently
Started: Feb 2000
License:
Operating System:
Programming Language: C++ / Interbase/planned Postgresql
Topic:
Authors: Horst Herb

• [OS][US][English]Tk Family Practice (http://www.psnw.com/%7Ealcald/#informatics)
A clinical medical information system suitable for a Family Physicians office for storing clinical information on patients as opposed to just billing information. It runs on both Linux/X-windows and Windows95. Packages already up and running in daily practice. Drug-Drug and Drug-Food interactions.
Development Status: going-on
License:
Operating System:
Programming Language: Tcl/Tk
Topic:
Authors:
• [OS][EU]Synapses (http://www.cs.tcd.ie/synapses/public/)
Object data dictionary from the Synapses European project. Sam Heard and alii are presently building some protype archetypes which fit the same role in the GEHR architecture but are independent of the architecture schema.
The architecture document is at http://www.cs.tcd.ie/synapses/public/deliverables/part3.pdf
Documents. Software?
• [US][OS][English]pathmaster (developed here at Yale)
unknown.
• [ES][US][English]MedMapper (http://www.medmapper.com/)
This project combines an extensive graphic collection of medical decision making MAP's (Multistep Algorhithmic Protocols) of Dr Pepper
 with the computer skills of Dr. Alex Caldwell.s. Asthma/Sore Throat.
Development Status: going-on
License:
Operating System:
Programming Language: Tcl/Tk
Topic:
Authors: David Pepper, Alex Caldwell
• [OS][DT][English]LinuDent (http://linudent.sourceforge.net/)
A Project to produce Dental Practice Management Software.
Development Status: going-on
License:
Operating System:
Programming Language:
Topic:
Authors:
• [OS][US][English]Arachne (http://www.arachne.org)
A Toolset for the Development of Clinical Workstation Applications from Distributed Components. ORB and toolkit. Arachne is a full featured CORBA implementation bundled with an optional layered toolkit for portable C++/CORBA GUI software development. All of Arachne is freely
distributable and usable on a variety of platforms.
Development Status: going-on
Started: 1992
License:
Operating System:
Programming Language: C++
Topic:
Contact: arachne@arachne.org
Authors:
• [OS][US][English]QQ-MIM (http://lorenzo.uwstout.edu/QQMIM/qq4.html)
Quick-Quack aimed at making essential clinical information easily accessible. Specifications.
Development Status: stopped
Started: 1985
License:
Operating System:
Programming Language:
Topic:
Authors: Daniel L. Johnson
• [OS][France][French]LinuxMed (http://www.medecine-fr.com/projet.html)
gestion de cabinet médical sous Linux sous license GPL.
Development Status: going-on
Strated: Jan 2000
License: GPL
Operating System: Linux
Programming Language: mySql
Topic:
Authors: Philippe Cadic
• [EU][OS][English]Prorec (http://www.sadiel.es/europa/prorec)
PROREC (PROmotion strategy for european electronic healthcare RECords) is a European project whose aim is to promote and coordinate the European wide convergence towards comprehensive, communicable and secure Electronic Healthcare Records (EHCR). Within the PROREC project, a European Network of National PROREC centres has been designed for promoting the widespread use of Electronic Health Care Records in Europe. Belgium, Spain, France, Hungary and The Netherlands have been created.
Development Status: going-on
License:
Operating System:
Programming Language:
Topic:
Authors: prorec@sadiel.es
• [EU][English]MEDIMEDIA is the best case I have, together with GASTER and EURORAD.
implementation of large databases of medical images: X-ray, endoscopy, pathology, CT scanner. XXXTODO
Development Status:
License:
Operating System:
Programming Language:
Topic:
Authors: 106521.3337@compuserve.com
• [France]http://www.almacom.fr
unknown status. transmission of medical data? Commercial company?
Development Status:
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Operating System:
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Topic:
Authors:
• [US]MDSchedule (http://MDSchedule.sourceforge.net)
MDSchedule is a PHP and MySQL server-based application for capturing physician schedule requests and schedule creation based on those requests.
Development Status:
License:
Operating System:
Programming Language:
Topic:
Authors:
• MEDAL (http://www.medal.org/index.html)
medical algorithms - A Medical Algorithm is any computation, formula, survey, or look-up table, useful in healthcare. We have collected over 1600 algorithms spanning major medical domains, organized into 43 chapters. To ensure the widest possible audience, the algorithms have been implemented in an Excel workbook which you can freely download to run on your Windows or Macintosh computer. You will need MS Excel, and should be familiar with running spreadsheets.
Development Status:
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Operating System:
Programming Language:
Topic:
Authors: John R. Svirbely, M.G.Sriram
• [Germany]MEDPICS (http://medpics.org/)
Collaboration for Critical Appraisal of  Medical Information on the Internet.
• [US]The Virtual Hospital (http://www.vh.org)
The Virtual Hospital is a site providing information by disease, organs or department. And more. The Virtual Hospital is a registered trademark.
Development Status:
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• [US]electronic obstetric record system (EORS) ()
Electronic obstetric record system (EORS) using the World Wide Web. Abstract here. Hospital here.
Development Status:
License:
Operating System:
Programming Language: Postgres/PHP/Apache
Topic:
Authors: Mukaida FY, Fettinger SG
• [US]Biomail (http://Biomail.sourceforge.net) - http://www.biomail.org

 
BioMail is a small web-based application for medical researchers, biologists, and anyone who wants to know the latest information about a disease or a biological phenomenon. http://berlioz.informatics.sunysb.edu/cgi-bin/biomail/users.pl

Development Status:
License:
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Programming Language:
Topic:
Authors: Holly Miller, Dmitry Mozzherin

• [OS][US]phpUMLS (http://cosmos.sourceforge.net/index.php or http://phpUMLS.sourceforge.net?)
Converts raw strings to UMLS concept ID. Two independent source codes in the phpUMLS package: 1. the phpUMLS PHP scripts (GPL) 2. the UMLS MetaThesaurus API (ks -- public domain)
Also by A. Marcelo: http://users.linuxbox.com/~amarcelo/svg_test_file.svg to be viewed with the plugin available at http://www.adobe.com/svg/main.html
Development Status:
License:
Operating System:
Programming Language:
Topic:
Authors: Alvin Marcelo
• [OL][US]UMLS Knowledge Source Server  (http://umlsks.nlm.nih.gov/)
UMLS Metathesaurus. Free access but registration compulsory (based on a first paper exchange). Copyrighted. See also UMLS (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/umls/) Unified Medical Language System.
Development Status:
License:
Operating System:
Programming Language:
Topic:
Authors:
• [OS][LI][US]Yeungnam Interfacer (http://www.hitel.net/~chleeymc/)
Yeungnam Interfacer is software for interfaces between LIS Host and Clinical Laboratory's Instruments with minimal or no coding. Freeware. For ADVIA 120, 502X, Cx Series, Hitachi 747.
Development Status: going-on
License: freeware
Operating System: MS Windows95/98
require: BDE (Borland Database Engine) and ODBC 3.xx.
Programming Language: MS SQL 7
Topic:
Authors: chleeymc@hitel.net
• [US]Genamics SoftwareSeek (http://genamics.com/software/)
respository and database of freely-distributable and commercial tools for use in molecular biology and biochemistry. The database presently contains more than 1100 entries. DNA/RNA, protein structure, medical, labs, graphing, stats. Genamics Open Resource Project (http://genamics.com/gorp_faq.htm) includes three resources: SoftwareSeek, JournalSeek, and GenomeSeek.Looks promising.
Development Status:
License: free
Operating System: Windows, MS-DOS, Mac, Unix and Linux platforms are supported
Programming Language:
Topic:
Authors:
• [FW][UK]CLUE (http://www.clinical-info.co.uk/clue.htm)
Windows engine designed to ease implementation of NHS Clinical Terms Version 3. It also supports other clinical terminologies, coding schemes and classifications. Access to cross-mapping tables for ICD9, ICD10, OPCS4, BNF and ATC codes.
Development Status:
License: freeware
Operating System: Windows
Programming Language: visual basic
Topic:
Authors:
• [UK]Audio/J (http://www.annexia.demon.co.uk/)
A simple Audiometry (medical) database suitable for use in the UK. Requires MDA (also developed at the same location) and Blackdown JVM/SWING.
Development Status:
License: GPL
Operating System: linux
Programming Language: java
Topic:
Authors: Richard Jones
• [FW][DICOM][France]EViewBox (http://www.derhy.com/DICOM/EViewBox.html)
Application which allows to view many kind of images , including DICOM , if they are all the same size you can make multiplanar reconstruction.
Interesting DICOM tutorial [French] at http://www.derhy.com/DICOM/JFR98/index.html.
Development Status:
License: freeware (source available if app source is given back)
Operating System:
Programming Language: java
Topic:
Authors:  dicom@derhy.com (Serge Derhy)
• [OS][US]ECG2PNG (http://www.cardiothink.com/downloads/ecg2png/)
This program is designed to convert scanned 12-lead electrocardiograms into PNG format and a web-friendly image size. It assumes that the electrocardiogram (ECG) is printed with a black line on white paper with a red grid. The problems this program is designed to solve are (1) an ECG scanned at relatively high resolution (300 to 600 dots per inch) imposes a substantial load on the web browser because it contains about 6 million pixels which may require 18 to 24 MB of RAM to store for display. Also, (2) typical scanners convert a clean paper ECG into a multitude of colors, include green and blue. The resulting file cannot be compressed efficiently because it does not contain as much redundancy, and thus takes more time to transmit over low-speed network connections.
Development Status:
Started: Oct 99?
License: GPL
Operating System:
Programming Language:
Topic:
Authors: Lawrence Widman
• [France]CSK Santé (SEGA)
unknown.
Development Status:
License:
Operating System: linux
Programming Language:
Topic:
Authors:
• [English]XChart (http://www.openhealth.org/XChart)
XML-based healthcare software system from the ground up, including a grove processing model which enables XML processing of EDI,HL7 and MIME messages. Demo of generation of surgical operative reports in java at  http://www.openhealth.org/opnote
Development Status: started August 2000
Intended Audience:
License:
Operating System:
Programming Language: java
Topic:
Authors: Jonathan Borden

• [PI][OS][Canada][English]Circare (http://www.openhealth.com/circare)
The Circare project aims at identifying and at providing key infrastructure for Regional Health Networks as open source products (read the vision (in English), in particular a patient centered network index system.
Development Status: started
Intended Audience:
License:
Operating System:
Programming Language:
Topic: Patient Index
Authors: Brian Bray, Joseph Dal Molin
• [CS][US][English]Perceptions (http://www.enjellic.com)
Perceptions is a stopped project slanted to be released as Open Source aiming to be a tracking software for ambulatory treatment of cancer patients. Most information comes from this paper.
Development Status: stopped.
Intended Audience:
License: closed source
Operating System:
Programming Language: shell, perl, tk
Topic:
Authors: Dr. Greg Wettstein

Health links

• [English][France]Health card API (http://www.sesam-vitale.fr/progi/apihospi.htm) published by SESAM-Vitale (http://www.sesam-vitale.fr/) (France)
• [English][Italy]OSHCA (http://www.oshca.org) the Open Source Health Care Alliance aiming at promoting and coordinating open source software in human and veterinary health care.
• Although not strictly speaking Open Source, the wealth of public medical information constitutes an important part of the Open Source Health.
• [France]Univers Santé (http://www.generique.net/pages) help to search medical information on the Web
• [France]InVivo: list of links (http://www.invivo.net/invivo/db/liens/fronton.php?cfg=bg)
• Standards related to Health
• Health Level 7 (HL7) (http://www.hl7.org/) standards for the electronic exchange of health information
• CorbaMED (http://www.omg.org/homepages/corbamed/) the healthcare Domain Task Force of the Object Management Group (OMG).
• DICOM
• CEN/TC251
• ISO/TC215
• ETSI http://www.ict.etsi.org/ - http://www.ict.etsi.org/eessi/EESSIworkitems.htm
• ASTM E31: http://www.astm.org/COMMIT/COMMITTEE/E31.htm
• more at IETF and W3C not targetted to health per se.
• [English]the 11.19 group at http://www.11-19.org/ defining standards for security in healthcare: technology and guidelines to issue digital certificates to doctors (following the announce of AMA in October 1999). Members are technology providers (cisco, verisign, oracle,...) and healthcare organisations (webMD, PlanetRx,...).
• [English]http://www.ontology.org a web site dedicated to definitions of ontologies (not particularly related to health)
• [English][inventory][web site]Aubrey's Laboratory software (http://www.btinternet.com/~ablumsohn/beesoft.htm) This site contains software intended to be of interest to medical laboratory scientists. The emphasis is on scientific plotting, medical biochemistry, and general laboratory utilities. Preference is shown for free rather than commercial software. Graphics, statistics, quality control, molecular biology.
• [English][French][France][inventory][web site]Clinical Laboratory Software (http://perso.easynet.fr/~philimar/). This site is devoted to freeware programs of interest in clinical chemistry, especially Quality control, statistical program designed for comparing analytical techniques and other useful software in clinical laboratories. (Dr Philippe Marquis).
• [English][OL]Medical Terminologies (This list comes from the OpenGALEN web site)
• list of schemes recognised by HL7
• list of 79 schemes included in current version of UMLS
• CCS an ICD grouper used by Healthcare Cost & Utilization Project of AHCPR
• CPTCurrent Procedural Terminology © American Medical Association
• DEEDS check this one
• DPD Canadian Drug Product Database
• DSM IV © American Psychiatric Association
• e-Codes check this one
• World Health Organisation classifications and derivatives
• ATC Anatomic Therapeutic Chemical classification for drugs
• ICD-9 International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision
• ICD-9-CMClinical Modification version of ICD-9 (other site at duke)
• ICD-10 International Classification of Disease, Tenth Revision © WHO (other site at duke)
• ICD-10-CM Clinical Modification version of ICD-10
• ICD-10-AM Australian Modification version of ICD-10
• ICD-9/10  ftp://ftp.cdc.gov/pub/Health_Statistics/NCHS/Publications/
• ICIDH International Classification of Impairment, Disease and Handicap
• WHOART WHO classification of adverser reactions
• ICNP International classification of nursing practice
• ICPC International Classification for Primary Care © WONCA
• LOINC Logical Observation Identifiers, Names and Codes
• MED Medical Entities Dictionary
• MEDCIN clinical interface terminology used by many US vendors, with mappings to ICD, CPT, DSM IV. On line demo.
• MEDRAMedical Dictionary for Drug Regulatory Affairs
• NDC National Drug Codes (US) from the FDA
• READ Codes© UK Crown Copyright
• SNOMED-RT Systematised Nomenclature of Medicine © College of American Pathologists
• UMDNS Universal Medical Device Nomenclature System
• UMLSUnified Medical Language System
• WONCA is the World Organisation of Family Doctors (WONCA) whose aim is to improve the quality of life of the peoples of the world through fostering and maintaining high standards of care in general practice/family medicine. They also publish the ICPC nomenclature (see above).
• List of classifications at http://www.ulb.ac.be/esp/emd/classifications.htm

Mailing lists

• [English][World]openhealth (archives | archives | send message to the list)
This mailing list discusses general topics among developers.
Size:
• [French][France]medecine-linux@romeo.invivo.net (archives | send a message to the list)
This mailing list is organised mainly by doctors with a computer science background. Charter: "Liste consacrée à l'utilisation de Linux par les médecins. C'est aussi plus largement l'usage des logiciels libres ou pas, et d'une façon générale des applications (scientifiques ou pas, réseau de santé, transmission de données) portés sous Linux, visant à faire la promotion de cet Operating System parmi les professions de santé."
Size: above 100 subscribers
• [English][?]WONCA Classification Committee.(http://www.ulb.ac.be/esp/wicc) at wonca-classification@Schin.ncl.ac.uk
This mailing list is devoted to classification for GP (?)
• [France][Forum]http://mmt.free.fr/club.htm or http://masef.free.fr/freewares/freewares.htm

 

Events

• [Italy][June2000]OSHCA! The Open Source Health Care Alliance aiming at promoting and coordinating open source software in human and veterinary health care kicks off on June 1st 2000.
• [France][July2000]Les Journées du "Libre Software" dans le monde de la Santé, organisée par Association Bordelaise des Utilisateurs de Linux et des Logiciels Libres
• AMIA (http://www.amia.org/meetings/fall2000/main.html)
• Medinfo 2001: London 2 - 5 September 2001 (http://www.medinfo2001.org/)
• Open Source 2000 conference in Monterey/California in July

Links to documents of the European Union

The Information Society Technology (IST) programme is a part of a $15 billion R&D programme over 4 years (1998-2002) called 5th Framework Programme. More can be found on http://www.cordis.lu.  As another example, pure clinical research is mostly carried out in another programme: the quality of life and life science (QoL) programme. Participation to these R&D programmes is open to partners from all countries. However, only partners from European countries and associated states are entitled to receive funding from the Commission (http://www.cordis.lu/fp5/src/3rdcountries.htm). In some cases, a national mechanism (such as in Switzerland through the ministry of education, or in Argentina) has been foreseen to fund their national participating organisations once a proposal has been retained by the Commission (http://www.cordis.lu/inco2/src/research.htm#iii).

• The IST Programme Advisory Group (ISTAG)
The Advisory Group in its "Orientations for Workprogramme 2000 and beyond (ftp://ftp.cordis.lu/pub/ist/docs/istagwp2000d.pdf)" (in English).
• directives. Link to HIPAA as well?
• The position of Mr. Erkki Liikanen, Information Society Commissioner, on Open Source in http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/te/8052/1.html. Excerpts: Do you think that pushing the open source movement could be an opportunity for Europe to take the lead in a new sector in the information society?Erkki Liikanen: I think the open source philosophy is a fascinating subject. Even in Davos there was a workshop about open source software, and it was quite funny. It's very clear that solutions where you know the code and can develop it further is very challenging for young people, and for many companies also. I'm sure it will be a serious competitor in the market. What we need, of course, are user friendly solutions and then the services will follow. It's interesting that many companies are investing in open source software now and in Linux. Linux has good productivity results in the area of servers. I have been testing Linux and I've also sent a letter to my colleagues in the commission that we should use open source software. The atmosphere is very open. When will Linux be on the desktops of all the Commissioners and the delegates of the Parliament? Erkki Liikanen: In France they want to make it an obligation to use open source software. But to change the platforms of some twenty thousand people is always a very heavy operation. There are public sectors that are using partly Linux in whole Europe. In Germany, Linux use is growing. In Finland we have administrations that run fully on Linux. I have started the discussion, I've opened the issue and I will make a proposal to consider where we could do open software. Because it's never good to be totally dependent on one single operating system. Do you think that the use of open source will also bring with it a more open information society? Erkki Liikanen: I'm sure the philosophy helps also there. Of course we have always the big philosophical debate about standards and codes and lock-in effects. In the companies standards are often used to lock in people to become your clients. But then you're fully dependent on one solution and it's terribly hard to change. So for that reason open software is a possibility. There are two big issues that are on the agenda. Open software and the mobile Internet. Both are challenging and I'm happy that  my country has been deeply involved in both efforts.
• [july2000] Another intervention of Mr. Liikanen at http://www.silicon.com/a38691: "[Citizens] should not be forced to buy a specific commercial software to be able to have electronic exchanges with his Administration." He added that open source software gave IT directors "a new chance" to tackle security issues.
• List of accepted projects of the IST Research and Development Programme. The health projects are here.
• List of documents (http://www.cordis.lu/ist/part-docs.htm) needed to participate in the IST Research and Development Programme
• Open Source explicitly mentioned for embebbed systems in the IST programme for the call in September 2000 here
• European directives:

Note: a directive is not a law or an act but it obliges the Member States to transpose the directive into a national law which then becomes part of the legal framework.
• interoperability directive: http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/fr/lif/dat/1991/fr_391L0250.html
• emergency health card (paper version): Résolution du Conseil et des représentants des gouvernements des États membres, réunis au sein du conseil, du 29 mai 1986,

concernant l'adoption d'une carte sanitaire européenne d'urgence Journal officiel n° C 184 du 23/07/1986 p. 0004 - 0007 RÉSOLUTION du Conseil et des représentants des gouvernements des États membres, réunis au sein du Conseil,du 29 mai 1986concernant l'adoption d'une carte sanitaire européenne d'urgence(86/C 184/03)
• How to understand the ethical principles to be applied in our projects?
• Generally - the ethical principles to be followed for our proposers are set out in the Guide to Evaluators, page 73.
• best general European place is the European Group on Ethics in Sciences and NEw Technologies, in particular Opinion 13 on IS and health and Opnion 10 on Ethics in the Fifth FP. http://europa.eu.int/comm/secretariat_general/sgc/ethics/en/gee_en.htm
• Also useful is the UNESCO programme on Ethics of Scietnifc Knowledge http://www.unesco.org/ethics/uk/connaissances/index.html
• An American view can be found at http://www.ihealthcoalition.org/community/ethics.html
• Making a technology business plan. Guidelines proposed by the European Commission.
• The EHTO web site (http://www.ehto.org) - European Health Telematics Observatory
List of European projects in the health sector
Contact details: Maria Laires (maria.laires@ehto.org) Tel: +351 1 319 32 12 / 4

News

• [French][PhD]thesis on the modelling of medical data in a GP practice by Eric Sassel. Interesting do and don'ts of GP software. At http://www.ulb.ac.be/esp/cisp/eric_sassel/index.html
• [web site][PDA]web site for handheld devices for the medical world at http://www.handheldmed.com/
• [July2000]Horror stories of unfortunate, costly healthcare information technology failures at http://members.aol.com/medinformaticsmd/failure.htm
• [July2000]CEN/TC251 (health-related European normalization institute) starting new drafts: http://www.centc251.org/tcmeet/doclist/doclist2000.htm and http://www.centc251.org/RFC/newrfc.htm
• [August2000]benchmark results that compare PostgreSQL with other open source and two proprietory database engines. The results are excellent. To be related to the prevision of Forrester Research below. Results at http://www.greatbridge.com/news/p_081420001.html or http://apachetoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2000-08-14-008-01-PR-MR-SWPostgreSQL meets or exceeds speed and scalability of proprietary

database leaders, and significantly surpasses open source competitors.
• [August2000] http://oss.sgi.com/projects/inventor/ : object-oriented toolkit for interactive 3D graphics released as open source by Silicon Graphics.
• [August2000]Linux joins Windows 2000 and HP-UX as HP's third strategic operating system. "This was really driven by consumer need," said Jim Bell, general manager of open source and Linux operations at Hewlett-Packard. "Linux is a tsunami that  is over-running the marketplace. It has spread like wildfire and we anticipate this is going to accelerate."
• [August2000]StarOffice, http://openoffice.org, the Office suite (text processor, spreadsheet, ...) to be based on Gnome (GUI) might just as well become Open Source on October 13 this year. This announce has been made by Sun (http://www.sun.com/developers/openoffice/) this summer. No longer will files and documents wear the cement shoes of a single vendor or operating system, but standards will flourish and compatibility reign across platforms. The Office suite will be released under a double licensing scheme: GPL and Sun's
• [August2000]Open-source standards will completely reshape the software industry by 2004, according to a recent report by Forrester Research. A report at wired is at  http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,38240,00.html and the original report at forrester (not available without subscription. I would appreciate reciving a copy of it!). Forrester forecasts that within four years, all traditional software vendors will need to change their proprietary business models to open-source ones, or drastically lower the price of enterprise application licenses. Oracle and Microsoft will be hardest hit. The report predicts that Oracle won't be able to compete with the widespread emergence of no-cost database and server software and will be forced to open its applications. But the company will eventually recover by transforming itself into a service/support vendor.
• [August2000]The staff at mozilla.org have decided to go forward with an attempt to relicense the code contained at cvs.mozilla.org under an MPL-GPL dual license. It is an important step for the Open Source world since the incompatibities between licenses have hampered developments and re-use of Mozilla source code. See http://www.mozilla.org/MPL/mozilla-relicense-faq.html
• [june2000][UK][English]Interesting article on the view on open source by the UK health care by Douglas Carnall at http://www.carnall.demon.co.uk/OpSrcHth.htm
• [July2000]Interbase (database) released as open source: InterBase 6.0 has been released under a variant on the Mozilla Public License (MPL) V1.1. Developers using InterBase under this license can modify the code or develop applications without being required to open source them. The open source license applies to all platforms. Press release at http://www.borland.com/about/press/2000/ib6.html
• []motif goes open source

[june2000][OS]Plan 9, an OS that has been in development at Lucent (Bell Labs) for most of the 90s, was just released under an open source license.  For more info: http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9dist/, http://www.ecf.toronto.edu/plan9/intro.html, http://www.ecf.toronto.edu/plan9/gary/diff.html, http://www.ecf.toronto.edu/plan9/plan9faq.html, http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9dist/index.html. Lucent has developed the ideas in Plan 9 further in a new operating system called Brazil, which has not been released to the public or productized yet.  Both Plan 9 and Brazil were designed with the network in mind from the very beginning.
• [][France][French]what is Sesam Vital and the French system of health cards at http://home.worldnet.fr/~amgit44/sesam.htm
• [July2000][NORM][French][France] The French normalization institute (AFNOR) is looking into medical data at http://forum.afnor.fr/afnor/WORK/AFNOR/GPN2/S95C/index.htm
• []A recent study performed by the German government came to the conclusion that (true word for word translation): "apart from that [financial reasoning], open source software satisfies higher security demands - in the past there were "numerous occasions" that "made the reliability of commercial soft- and hardware questionable, at most regarding privacy and security issues"  http://www.kbst.bund.de/papers/briefe/
• []A quite interesting and thorough report about the viability of operating systems of the "German Society for Medical IT", the official (government funded) academic body for all health related IT issues, states that NT is basically not an option for health IT. A security level at it's best comparable with older (outdated) UNIX systems, only achievable with thorough configuration and physical separation from any WAN or Internet, makes NT useless for hospital related IT purposes. They advise to scrap NT servers, get UNIX/Linux based servers, and suggest some temporary security workarounds for the institutions suffering from NT at present. That is the consequence of the very strict (and enforceable) German privacy law.  Interested people can read the whole study under http://info.imsd.uni-mainz.de/AGDatenschutz/ (provided they speak German).
• []The commissioner for Education and Culture of the European Union, Viviane Reding, stated after the recent summit in Lissabon that Microsoft software shall be banned from European schools. (source: http://www.heise.de/newsticker/data/jk-26.03.00-002/ )
• [may2000]SIGN THE PETITION AGAINST SOFTWARE PATENT IN EUROPE (to be addressed to the European Parliament) at http://petition.eurolinux.org/index_html
• [may2000][news]Investor's Business Daily, 19 June 2000: Free software is gaining momentum as open source developers begin to release high-quality applications for business-to-business e-commerce and other areas.  Traditionally viewed as a cheap alternative to better applications, free software is now seen as a viable option even at the higher end.  Companies are now emerging with business models that aim to profit from free software.  For example, Akopia offers free programs that allow companies to establish online trading sites, and it earns money by providing services.  In addition, Akopia includes links in its software to service organizations, taking a share of the profits from any agreements that originate from the links.
• [may2000][news]http://www.linuxmall.com/news/?1,230: Adam Wood of Deutsche Bank stated that investors are comfortable with the Linux model. Wood went on to comment that in Europe, the Open Source movement has a proven track record, and that a comfort level with Linux in mission-critical environments has been achieved. Adam Jollans, European Marketing Manager for IBM Software on Linux, said the company was "pleased to be working with SuSE Linux in promoting Linux within the European business community." Rudiger Berlich, managing director of SuSE Linux UK, said, "The success of the conference is testament to the increasing recognition of Linux as a viable OS for the business environment." European countries seem bent on continuing to adopt Linux at a faster rate than their American brethren. France's official adoption of free and Open Source software in its public schools is only one example.
• [may2000][news]Cash Cascades into European Open Source Project Development (http://www.linuxmall.com/news/?1,186) Matra Datavision has announced a multi-million French franc contract with the Open CASCADE initiative to provide development services around its Open Source modeling components.
• [][English][OS]open source speech recognition software made available by CMU: Sphinx (http://fife.speech.cs.cmu.edu/speech/sphinx/).
• [1998][English]Bertrand Meyer's point of view on Open Source: "The Ethics of Free Software"  http://www.sdmagazine.com/features/2000/03/f4.shtml. B. Meyer uses his position of Eiffel, OO and design-by-contract pundit to give his early views on Open Source. Rebuttals (here).
• References and analogy of over-the-counter drugs, penicilin, polio vaccine with Open Source software?
• [April00][French][English][Japanese]A proposal of law for Open Source in France by MM. Le Déaut, Paul and Cohen (at http://www.osslaw.org/). Using Open Source to increase liberties and consumer protection, and improve economic competition in the information society.
• [April00][French]A first proposal of law for Open Source in France by MM. Laffitte, Trégouet and Cabanel (at http://www.senat.fr/grp/rdse/page/forum/texteloi.html). Open Source requirements for public procurement.
• [April00][French]Public procurement and the requirements to have access to the source code in public contracts at http://www.industrie.gouv.fr/biblioth/docu/dossiers/ntic/gfii/sb_gf-22.htm.
• [Dec99][Brazilian]A proposal of law for Open Source in public procurement by Mr. Walter Pinheiro at http://www.guiasoft.com.br/leilinux.htm.
• [April00][German][English] German federal government's Information Techonology Coordinating Office (Koordinierungs- und Beratungsstelle für Informationstechnik, or KBSt) has recommended in a letter to the government (No. 2/2000) that open-source software be used in government agencies. The study itself is here (http://www.kbst.bund.de/papers/briefe/02-2000/index2.html). (a raw machine translation in English -Word97- is here). Press releases on the study are at http://www2.linuxtag.de/2000/deutsch/pressmedia/pe-2000-04-03.php3  and http://195.227.34.228/2000/english/showarticle.php3?id=0006
• [German][English]Fighting denial-of-services by the BSI (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik - German Federal  agency for security in IT) at http://www.bsi.de/ddos.html (raw machine translation in English). Open Source is recommended as a strategy for more security. A summary can be found at LinuxToday.
• [May00][english]recommendations on Open Source have been released to the European Commissioner for Information Society, Mr. E. Liikanen.
• [web site][French]ILLICO - Internet et le Logiciel LIbre dans les Collectivités Territoriales at http://www.illico.org/. Association to foster the use of Internet and Open Source software in local communities.
• [French]Observatoire des telecommunications dans la ville - report on the benefits of Open Source software for local community at http://www.telecomville.org/obs/inf716.html
• [French]Le Bouquet Libre at http://www.mtic.pm.gouv.fr/bouquet-libre/ in order to provide the civil services, local communities and public organisations with useful information to foster use of Open Source software.
• [inventory][english][1999]Open-Source Medical Information Management by Daniel L. Johnson (essay on a taxonomy on medical-record software aimed at the outpatient-care setting).
• [OS evangelism][English][Dec 1998]Why open source software is better for society than proprietary closed source software by  Ben Pfaff and Ken David
• [challenge]The Stockholm Challenge Award 2000 (http://www.challenge.stockholm.se/challenge.html), the successor to the Global Bangemann Challenge! Links to lots of ongoing IT projects in Health (not open source...).
• [French][web site]http://www.medecine.cx/ French web site for health professionals.
• [Germany]Medecine and Linux (http://home.snafu.de/wehe/med_linux.html) by Werner Heuser. Survey of Linux software for the medical sciences in the Medicine-HOWTO.  The projects deserved to be listed above. Very interesting list of links for the mobile user (PDA, WAP, Bluetooth,...)!
• [PDA][news]PDA MD (http://www.pdamd.com/news.shtml). Another news site dedicated to use of PDA by doctors.
• [document]http://www.kitware.com/vtkhtml/vtkdata/paper1.pdf
• [history]http://www.fsf.org/gnu
• [history]http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/hacker-history
• [inventory][english]http://www.minoru-development.com/en/healthlinks.html#projects
• [news site]Linux mednews (http://www.linuxmednews.org)News site started end March 2000 dedicated to the use Open Source software in medecine.
• [australia][web site]http://www.medicineau.net.au/computing/oss/home.htmlweb site dedicated to Open Source health resources and document server
• [australia][]http://www.hisa.org.au/ health informatics society Australia
• [web sites]free.fr, linuxfr.org, http://linuxbe.org
• [inventory]Common Open Source Medical Objects (http://cosmos.sourceforge.net/) by Alvin Marcelo, graphical map showing the relationship of ongoing open source projects (taxonomy based on technology used and project objectives).
• [news][May2000]small group of member of the Internet Societal Task Force (ISTF http://www.istf.org/) have come together to promote the use of free/open source software.
• [UK][report][security][ethics]Ross Anderson on cryptography and security issues at http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/rja14/
• [minspec]Gareth Morgan's thoughts on minimalist approaches: http://www.imaginiz.com/provocative/concept/solution.html, http://www.imaginiz.com/provocative/organize/termites.html, http://www.vha.com/edgeplace/think/index.html
• [security]Coalition forms to address online health care security (http://home.cnet.com/category/0-1007-200-1676493.html)
A group of technology and health care companies today said they have banded together to develop standards for secure Web transactions in the health care field.   The 23 participants include Aetna, PlanetRx.com, the California Medical Association, Cisco Systems, Intel, MedicaLogic, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, VeriSign and Securify, among others.   The move follows growing concern about the privacy of medical records online. The coalition, called the 11.19 Working Group, plans to create a model for online transactions that includes digital credentials for medical professionals.
• [RFP]UNESCO also has some software packages (CDS-ISIS, IDAMS) that are maintained by our main HQ in Paris. Copies in many languages of CDS-ISIS area available. Perhaps, a joint effort with our team in Paris would be useful to put CDS-ISIS as a freesw (Cláudio Menezes)
• [security][announce]Intel To Offer Open Source Security Software (attempt to revive CDSA?)
• [security][announce]secure Web transactions in the health care field
• [security]http://linuxtoday.com/stories/20234.html (comments by E. Raymond on backdoor left by Microsoft in the IIS web server) (Fix to the backdoor: delete the DLL (dvwsrr.dll))
• [EDI][web site]http://www.hcfa.gov/medicare/edi/edi.htm (Medicare Electronic Data Interchange)
• [news]Announcing the Open Source Health Care Alliance, Inaugural Forum: June 1, 2000, Rome, Italy - see http://www.oshca.org
• [web site]http://www.handheldmed.com/ (handheld devices for medical purposes and applications - software at http://www.handheldmed.com/code/software/index.htm)
• [web site]YOPI and Linux PDA for medicine - http://www.sem.samsung.com/eng/product/digital/pda/index.htm
• [news]http://www.linuxmednews.com/linuxmednews/955806388/index_html (Closed Medical Software Poses Unacceptable Risk)
• [French][web site][OS evangelisation]http://www.april.org/ : Association Pour la Promotion et la Recherche en Informatique Libre
• [specs]A good place to start is the IBM spec for primary care in Australia. More-D-G, Clarke-P-A. Health Practice, IBM Consulting Group, IBM Centre, Sydney, NSW, Australia. The General Practice computer system project: a doctor's desktop for Australia. International journal of medical informatics 1999 Jul, VOL: 55 (1), P: 65-75, ISSN: 1386-5056. I can send it to anyone who would like an electronic copy.  (Sam Heard)
• [news]How Linux Will Unify Medical Education and Practice (ivaldes@hal-pc.org)
• [news]Linux and IBM, interview of Dr Irving Wladawsky-Berger, Vice President Technology & Strategy, IBM (http://www.journalinformatique.com/itws/it_iwb.shtml)
• [web site]24 random screenshots of CPRS to give the open-health list a quick view of what we are using at the VA Hospitals to see the layout, etc. of this heavily used and well tested system. The fundamental backend of all this system is MUMPS-based. The link to the images is http://s2s.org/code/cprs/. (Steve Shreeve)
• [commercial web site]ePocrates qRx (http://www.ePocrates.com/products/qRx/) ePocrates qRx gives information on over 1500 of the most commonly prescribed drugs. From indication-specific dosing to drug-drug interactions on the Palm handheld. Uses < 900KB. Looks like a freebie to appeal customers. freeware (but closed source), Operating System: Palm handheld.
• [report][French][April 1 2000](David Trystram - dtrystram@starnet.fr) Paris - IPM2000 Internet et medecine (http://www.ipm3.org)
premier congrés consacré à l'enseignement de la médecine et l'internet. Nous sommes tous en médecine concernés, mais peutêtre quand même un peu plus particulièrement ici ou sur d'autres listes à divers titres, et cela lié en une plus importante implication dans l'informatique et l'Internet. Bref il a été présenté et discuté sur deux jours à la fois la révolution de la diffusion de l'information ou de l'enseignement de la médecine via le net, mais aussi de l'organisation de tout cela ainsi que la validité de ce que l'on peut y trouver. Ce dernier point n'était pas sans révéler des conflits d'ordre philosophiques mais aussi de pouvoir !  Différents projets et contributions universitaires ou serveurs web d'enseignement ont ainsi été présentés. Avec entre autres (non exaustif)(c'est ceux que j'ai pu noter):
http://medidacte.timone.univ-mrs.fr (marseille>
http://www.med.univ rennes1.fr (rennes)
http://www.chups.jussieu.fr (pitié-salpêtrière)
http://www.unice.fr (nice)
http://www.univ enligne.prd.fr/debut2.htm
http://www.inserm.fr/ethique (ethiques)
http://imgt.cines.fr:8104 (immunologie)
http://www.med.univ-rennes1.fr/CERF/ (radiologie)
http://www.cybercable.tm.fr/~biblioa (bibliothèques)
http://www.remede.org (remede, site étudiant)(Guylhem Aznar y participe)
Cela va donc des sites avec des cours organisés de façons classiques à des modes de présentations plus nouvelles comme l'ajout de cas cliniques dont tout le monde peut profiter au fur et à mesure, voir de l'enseignement intéractif et numérique (dans une école d'ingénieur) par exemple.  Très souvent était évoqué le nouveau mode de pensée ou de fonctionnement mental qu'il faut acquérir pour utiliser au mieux ces (fameuses) nouvelles technologie (information non linéaire).  Tout cela est en partie sous-tendu par une charte de qualité pour l'obtention du label "UMVFF" : Université Médicale Virtuelle France et Francophonie, via diverses organisations (universitaires essentiellement). Linux a été cité à de multiples reprises, en particulier par Jean-François Vibert ici présent, qui a fait un exposé sur : « Webalizer : un outil de mesure d_impact des sites Web ».  Dossier médical, système d'information hospitalier, identification, carte à puce d'identification ou de signature sécurité (chiffrage), interconnexion des réseau (par exemple Renater, universités, AP-HP), augmentation de la bande passante, topologie et techniques des réseaux etc... bien sûr faisaient aussi partie des sujets évoqués à plusieurs reprises. Les jeunes loups, créateurs de startup médicales, étaient là aussi ! Les textes des présentations sont disponibles en ligne (html et word) sur le site ipm2000.

Other useful Open Source resources

office suite

• [suite]StarOffice, http://openoffice.org, the Office suite (text processor, spreadsheet, ...) might just as well become Open Source on October 13 this year. This announce has been made by Sun (http://www.sun.com/developers/openoffice/) this summer. No longer will files and documents wear the cement shoes of a single vendor or operating system, but standards will flourish and compatibility reign across platforms. The Office suite will be released under a double licensing scheme: GPL and Sun's.
• [spreadsheet]gnumeric
• []abiword

databases

• [OS for UNIX][Win][UNIX]MySQL (http://www.mysql.org)
• ZopeDB  (http://www.zope.org)
The strong (and problably unique) points of ZopeDB seem to be:  versioning support, support for acquisition (child objects "inherit" attributes from parent objects. Doubts on ZopeDB include: scalability/distribution  (I'm not aware that this is possible), high-availability features (redundancy, fail-over, etc.) (bud@sistema.it).
• PostgreSQL (http://www.postgreSQL.org/)
• InterBase (http://www.interbase.com/) - distributed under a variant of MPL
• DODS (Data Object Design Studio) of Enhydra (http://www.enhydra.org) (see also http://www.enhydra.org/software/license/index.html)
• Mnesia (http://www.erlang.org/)
open source product Erlang/Mnesia by Ericsson as a very interesting implementation environment.  Mnesia is a state of the art distributed object-relational dbms with features that include transparent distribution, fault-tollerance, hot code upgrade and schema changes (and other features for non-stop systems), distributed transactions, distributed incremental backups, very fast (designed for soft realtime apps).
RDBMS implemented on top of Mnesia available as user contribution, great documentation including training material, active and very helpful mailing list, optional commercial support, Erlang is a concurrent, functional language that seems to excell in terms of time to market (at least as good as Python, see, for example http://www.erlang.org/ml-archive/erlang-questions/200004/msg00012.html.
• [€][OS][Win][UNIX]Berkeley Database (http://www.sleepycat.com)
• storedObjects (http://www.jdbms.org)
Used by Telemed as a simple form of persistent store with an interface layer that abstracts away the difference between RBMS and OODBMS.
• hypersonicSQL (http://sourceforge.net/project/?group_id=2962)
• Castor (http://castor.exolab.org) a nice object-relational mapping package
• XML-DBMS, Version 1.0 Java Packages for Transferring Data between XML Documents and Relational Databases (http://www.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/DVS1/staff/bourret/xmldbms/xmldbms.htm)
• An independent layer in Perl to access different DBs (oracle, ODBC, mysql,...) at http://www.symbolstone.org/technology/perl/DBI/

Database documents:

• foundational papers on object-relational mapping (http://www.objectarchitects.de/ObjectArchitects/orpatterns/index.htm)
• The Design of a Robust Persistence Layer for Relational Databases (http://www.ambysoft.com/persistenceLayer.html)

scripting languages

• perl (http://www.perl.com) and perl for Windows at http://www.activestate.com
• tcl (scriptics) and resources
• python
• erlang (http://www.erlang.org)
• M
• M on Perl (http://freem.vmth.ucdavis.edu/saintly/MontyPERL/)

ORB

• JavaORB at http://dog.exoffice.com

imaging

• KitWare (http://www.kitware.com/)
KitWare was one of the first "open source" companies. They developed a very nice library for scientific visualization.
• PNG
• GIMP (http://www.gimp.org) a ***** imaging tool.
• FreeDraft (http://freeengineer.org/) software to create a simple 2D mechanical cad system under GPL.
• [GUI]Gnome
• [GUI]KDE
• [France][English]OpenCASCADE (http://www.opencascade.org/) Open Source version of CASCADE, the CAD software developed by Matra Datavision (OS since Dec99).
Linux, Windows NT, SGI... 2D/3D. Open CASCADE Object Libraries are reusable C++ object libraries for producing all types of domain-specific graphic modeling applications. The Open CASCADE Application Framework is included with Open CASCADE 3.0. It is a Rapid Application Development framework that increases your productivity by organizing and specifying your application data and architecture, structuring applications that are associative by definition, managing modification history and automatically assigning storable attributes to objects. Typical Open CASCADE developments include domain-specific CAD, manufacturing or analysis applications, simulation applications, and illustration tools.

Internet

• BIND at http://www.isc.org/bind.html

mail

• Sendmail at  http://www.sendmail.com
• [MUA][OS][UNIX]MH, XMH, EXMH
• [MTA]qmail/zmail?
• [mailing list software]mailman (http://www.list.org/)
• [mailing list software]majordomo at  http://www.greatcircle.com/majordomo/
• [mailing list]eGroups (http://www.egroups.com)

operating systems

• [OS]Linux (distributions: SuSE, Debian, RedHat, ).
• [OS]SmallLinux - tiny version for constrained environment (http://smalllinux.netpedia.net/)
• [OS]FreeBSD
• [OS]NetBSD

web servers and related

• [OS][Win][UNIX]Apache (full web server, proxy)
• PHP at  http://www.php.net
• browser Mozilla
• browser Amaya at W3C
• web meta language (WML): http://www.engelschall.com/sw/wml/ Before choosing a metalanguage, it might be interesting to have a look at W3C, Zope or xml.apache.org.

file systems

• CODA and Odyssey (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~coda/)  distributed file systems for mobile users (improved AFS)
•  http://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/ XFS: high perf journalling file system by SGI
•  http://oss.sgi.com/projects/OpenVault/ OpenVault: mass storage management and framework by SGI

manuals

• Eiffel tutorials: http://www.elj.com
• UML manuals [French]http://www.ima.uco.fr/~madmax/uml/UML.html

publishing tools

• [OS][Win][UNIX]Zope (http://www.zope.org)
• [OS][Win][UNIX]Squishdot
• [OS][Win][UNIX]GIMP (http://www.gimp.org)

developer tools

• [OS][Win]the GNU suite (compiler, runtime, ... for Windows) at cygnus (now Red Hat)
• [OS][Win][UNIX]CVS - source control at  http://www.sourcegear.com/CVS
• [OS][Win]WinCVS - GUI interface to CVS
• ANT (replacement for make)
• [OS][UNIX]Open Track - bug tracking system (which we used at the Open Software Foundation).
• CSCOPE, a very useful tool for developpers to browse program code, originally developped by AT&T, now Open Source at http://cscope.sourceforge.net/
• speakfreely.org
• cvw.mitre.org / .gov (Joseph)

LDAP server/client

• IBM?
• Umich
• OpenLDAP, available from http://www.openldap.org

scientific applications

• scientific applications on Linux (http://sal.kachinatech.com/index.shtml) (open source or not)

embedded systems

• ECOS (Cygnus)

security

• [OS for version 1][CS][Win][UNIX]SSH - openssh?
• OpenSSL available from http://www.openssl.org
• PGP
• GnuPG
• openCA available from ...
• OECD : how to write a privacy policy + ...
• the Mozilla project includes several security-related projects:
• Open Source PKI Projects

Thanks to relaxed US export regulations, mozilla.org can now host security and cryptographic code. Open source PKI projects include:
• Network Security Services (NSS) -  NSS supports cross-platform development of security-enabled server applications. Applications built with NSS can support PKCS #5, PKCS #7, PKCS #11, PKCS #12, S/MIME, TLS, SSL v2 and v3, X.509 v3 certificates, and other security standards.
• Personal Security Manager (PSM) -  PSM supports cross-platform development of security-enabled client applications. PSM includes libraries (built on top of NSS) and a daemon that performs cryptographic operations on behalf of a client application--operations such as setting up an SSL connection, object signing and signature verification, certificate management, and other common PKI functions.
• Component Security - Component security supports the addition of Java and JavaScript security to Mozilla components, mainly in terms of mobile code and the browser interfaces available to programs from those languages. For cryptographic security projects, see Open Source PKI Projects.
• [World]Common Criteria + training material
• [Germany]Bernd Blobel's work in the health sector (magdeburg)
• [UK][security][ethics]Ross Anderson on cryptography and security issues (health sector) at http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/rja14/
• [EU]HARP list of references at http://telecom.ntua.gr/~HARP/HARP/INSIDE/References.htm and http://telecom.ntua.gr/~HARP/HARP/INSIDE/harp_refer.htm
• [Australia]Peter Gutmann's tutorial at http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/tutorial/

XML

• XML development by the Apache Foundation (http://xml.apache.org) very interesting
• XML for database (http://www.xml.com)

WAP

• Kannel is an open source WAP gateway. It attempts to provide this essential part of the WAP infrastructure freely to everyone so that the market potential for WAP services, both from wireless operators and specialized service providers, will be realized as efficiently as possible. Kannel also works as an SMS gateway for GSM networks. Almost all GSM phones can send and receive SMS messages, so this is a way to serve many more clients than just those using a new WAP phone.
• openWAP is an open source project for the implementation of the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) for use with browsers, servers and tools. WAP is used by PDA devices, cell phones, pagers and other wireless devices to transmit internet content to these devices. The project is still in its early stages and nothing can be downloaded yet.
• wml-tools is small suite of tools related to WAP WML development. It includes a WML bytecode compiler (wmlc), a decompiler (wmld), a simple WML deck viewer (wmlv) , a WML-to-HTML converter (wmlhtml) and an RDF-to-WML converter (rdfwml).
• more WAP links at http://home.snafu.de/wehe/phones_linux.html

repositories

• SourceForge (http://sourceforge.net)
SourceForge is a repository for code source and documents to be developed in the Open Source model. It allows collaborative work through simple software tools (namely CVS and SSH). Lots of projects and of code snippets.
• Sourcexchange (http://www.sourcexchange.com)
Source Exchange is a  Marketplace for Open Source Development. It allows users to express their needs. Developers contribute to these needs.
• Cosource (http://www.cosource.com)
CoSource is a  cooperative market for Open Source. It allows users to express their needs. Developers contribute to these needs in exchange of a fee determined by the user.
• Collab-net

testing tools and environment

• ADL (http://adl.opengroup.org)

            Automated Test Technology. This research has resulted in the development of a set of tools freely available.

speech recognition

• Sphinx (CMU) : http://fife.speech.cs.cmu.edu/speech/sphinx/ available for these platforms: Linux, FreeBSD (in Linux simulation), SunOS, Hewlett-Packard UNIX (HP/UX), Digital UNIX and Windows NT.

 

search engines

• EMERGE (http://access.ncsa.uiuc.edu/CoverStories/Emerge/Language1.html)
EMERGE is an NCSA product (in collaboration with NCI) to create a query generator that can access disparate databases. it does this by converting the query terms into XML sent to a server running Gazebo. Gazebo translates the XML query into Z39.50 (a language used by many scientific). This Z query is transmitted to  the databases listed in Gazebo. Results are returned to the user. Apparently, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) got involved somehow.

Further reading?

• AFUL - Association Francophone des Utilisateurs de Linux et des Logiciels Libres (http://aful.org)
French association advocating the use of libre software. News. Primers of Open Source. Links to useful sites in French. Organiser of Awards of Libre Software (in French).
• The Open Source organisation (http://www.opensource.org)
The reference organisation for Open Source licenses, Open Source certification, historical influencing papers (the Cathedral and the Bazaar (98), homesteading the noosphere (98), The Magic Cauldron by Eric Raymond) (in English).
• Setting Up Shop: The Business of Open-Source Software at http://www.hecker.org/writings/setting-up-shop.html
• Linux Center (http://www.portalux.com)
Association advocating the use of libre software. News. (in French and English).
• http://www.mtic.pm.gouv.fr
• Observatoire des télécommunications dans la ville (http://www.telecomville.org)
In particular, the report on  "Logiciel libre: quelles perspectives pour une collectivité locale? (http://www.telecomville.org/obs/inf716.html)" (in French)
• Bernard Lang's home page (http://pauillac.inria.fr/~lang/index.html)
Bernard Lang is a well-known advocate of the Libre Software in France. His web pages are full of interesting links, news, ... (in French and English).
In particular, this page of references (http://pauillac.inria.fr/~lang/libre/reperes) is a very useful mine of information.
• European Initiatives on Free Software (http://eu.conecta.it)
Discussion group and recommendations for the European Union.
• Tim O'Reilly bibliography of Open Source books (not only the ones he publishes!): http://opensource.oreilly.com/news/biblio_0700.html More links to Open Source at http://opensource.oreilly.com/index.html

 

Companies supporting the Open Source model

• GNU (http://www.gnu.org) The Free Software Foundation
• SuSE (Linux distribution)
• Caldera (Linux distribution)
• Redhat (and formerly Cygnus) (Linux distribution)
• TurboLinux (Linux distribution)
• Mandrake (Linux distribution)
• VA Linux (Linux distribution)
• Matra Division (http://www.opencascade.org/)
• Silicon Graphics at http://oss.sgi.com/projects/
• IBM Linux at IBM ViaVoice Speech Recognition, WebSphere, Linux for the S/390 from its DeveloperWorks site
• Lotus  DOMINO for Linux
• Apple with Darwin (the Mach kernel developped at OSF!) at http://www.publicsource.apple.com/projects/darwin/projects.html : you will have to register first to get access, but the registration is instantaneous and painless (no waiting for e-mail).  After you unpack it, take a look at the directory: xnu-1-1\osfmk. We could add www.mklinux.org

and www.mach-linux.org
• Oracle
• SAP
• http://www.control.com : We are working to bring the benefits of open source, open hardware technology to industrial automation.  Our work to date has captured the imagination of our industry, gaining us early notoriety and no small amount of publicity.

Patents

• Bernard Lang's page
• http://www.freepatents.org
• www.openpatents.org
• http://www.osslaw.org/
• FSF
• http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/my_pubs/anarchism.html
• [may2000]SIGN THE PETITION AGAINST SOFTWARE PATENT IN EUROPE (to be addressed to the European Parliament) at http://petition.eurolinux.org/index_html
• 10 European Industry Leaders have raised concerns about the ongoing legal process to update the European Patent Law in order to extend the range of application of software patents. According to pioneers of the software industry, the use of patents to protect software may actually lead to less innovation, less competition and eventually job cuts in the European Software Industry instead of generating new businesses and stimulating innovation as it is often believed. In order to promote innovation, competition and new businesses in the IT industry, Europe should be very careful with the application of software patents.
• The European Commission DG MARKET seriously thinks to software patents in Europe: http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=SPEECH/00/194|0|RAPID&lg=EN
• Hall of Shame: a patent suitable for a health IT hall of shame http://www.multum.com/PR-Patent.htm
• A good official european document against software patents COR Opinion (document Cdr 134/1999) The competitiveness of European enterprises in the face of globalisation - How it can be encouraged (COM(1998) 718 final) - All languages available from the page http://www.cor.eu.int/coratwork/comm6_opinions.html,http://www.cor.eu.int/coratwork/Comm6/english/134-99.htm

 

Health surveys

• [EU][World][English]Specific morbidity database related links at http://www.ulb.ac.be/esp/emd/database_links.htm
• [English][Jun99] “Hospital Information and Data Management Systems. Developments in the IT-systems for the Intelligent Hospital”. W. Kierski, N. Slocum and W. Payne, June 1999, Global Intelligence, Global Business Research Ltd.
• [English][Oct99] ”e-health II. Beyond the Business Plan.”, S. J. De Nelsky, M. B. Haspel and E. Lam, October 1999, Credit Suisse First Boston Corp.
• [English][EU][Apr00]"Health Information Society Technology Based Industry Study" by Deloitte and Touche report (study funded by the EC - DGINFSO-B1). A local copy is here. Copies available on http://www.ehto.org
• [English][US][Apr00]headlines of an e-Health survey (http://www.32bitsonline.com/news.php3?news=news/200005/nb200005024&page=1) by Gomez Associates
12,000 consumers surveyed, 77 percent indicated that they have previously searched online for health information, for 85%: top priority is credibility of health information, security/privacy issues high, e-health companies must provide personalized content, services and tools, while offering true convenience, promoting trust, and reducing healthcare costs to truly empower patients.

OS surveys

• netcraft
• behaviour of platforms under stress in the real world. http://www.heise.de/ct/english/00/08/174/
• http://www.uptimes.net/ - many if not most of the top stable systems are open sourced, and M$ products miss out completely in the top statistics
• European commercial packages include: StarOffice, from Hamburg, one of the most serious contenders to Microsoft Office,  Blender, an advanced 3D and animation package from the biggest 3D studio in the Netherlands,  VShop, an ecommerce solution from Frankfurt, used by big websites such as Deutsche Bahn, Michael Schumacher,  Mpeg, an MPEG decoder made by Frenchmen,  Netbeans, a Java development environment from Czechia,  Sniff (Austria), Qt (Norway), Roxen (Sweden), Flagship (Germany), XOffice (France), Siag Office (Sweden)

Credits

The original web page is available at http://homeusers.brutele.be/ypaindaveine/opensource/inventory.html.
Please send comments, contributions to ypaindaveine at brutele dot be
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