4. Medical Record Applications

4.1. Debian Med

The linux distribution by Debian is a well known and highly respected one. The developers are all volunteers and dedicated. Recently, it was announced that Debian would start making a Debian Med Package. This is very very good news, because one of the things Debian is known for is its "APT-GET" interface. This allows applications to be installed with the simple command of "apt-get install [application]". For example, if I wanted to install the OIO record system, I would simply type in 'apt-get install oio' and the apt-get program would not only install the OIO software, but would also install any software that OIO is Dependant on to run, such as the postgres database and Zope software and would configure it so that you could immediately start using it.

If you think I sound enthusiastic about this project, I am, because it simply would be perfect for the rest of the projects that are being developed in that would ease installment.

I urge to visit the Debian Med Homepage, by clicking HERE

4.2. VISTA (DHCP)

VISTA is a huge, VA hospital funded project, electron medical records system. I used this system, when I was a resident, in the Va hospital, and it simply was the best system (that I had used). I'm actually surprised that not more people know about this. I am not sure about the license, but the software and documentation is available under the Freedom of Information Act, but you need to send REQUESTS to get access to the software on CD. They are currently starting to host more and more of the code on-line, though.

4.3. SQL Clinic

SQL clinic is an impressive application that was developed for mental health workers, sponsored by their local hospital. What is most impressive is the amount of documentation. However it is unclear how useful the application would be for other non mental-health professionals.

	To address the point about its utility outside the mental health sector: we are doing a spin-off called (believe it or not) SQL Cafe. Why? The local Indian restaurant (www.tasteofindia.org - I do their web pages) has hired us to design a custom database that tracks vendors, customers, uses a cgi based on-line menu (to replace the html version, so modifications don't require html skills) and so on. Seriously, one other thing about SQL Clinic is that it was designed to be reverse engineered and used for other purposes. It's all based on Lincoln Stein's CGI.pm module (a terrific tool) and the incredible horsepower of Postgres. So I suspect, once Ingo and I get it a bit more streamlined, that SQL Clinic may have greater utility as an example of how to access postgres via Perl than as a mere clinical application. At least that is our goal.
--Thomas Good writes

4.4. Electronic Obstetrical Record System

EORS is a quite a well-developed medical management system used by the developers themselves in their OB practice. The layout is somewhat Star Trek-ish, but quite useful and well developed.

4.5. Freemed

Freemed is a medical management software package that runs in a web browser window. It currently uses Apache, an SQL back-end (usually MySQL, but there's an SQL Abstraction for this), and PHP, and is non-browser specific. It aims to duplicate all of the functionality of programs such as The Medical Manager, while remaining free to the community.

4.6. Freemed-YiRC

Freemed-YiRC is a PHP package based on Freemed for use with Youth in Residential Care (YiRC) agencies. Its aim is to be a complete package to replace legacy non-free apps which aren't customizable. Since it's PHP-based, all that is needed for the client is a good Web browser with extensive table support. It can use both Postgres and MySQL databases.

4.7. GNUMed

GNUMed is a GNU's project to develop a comprehensive medical management solution.

4.8. GNotary

GNOTARY is a client that provide the ability to notarize digital documents using a server to prove that digital documents have not been tampered with after their initial creation date. This is a very important piece of software.

The author provides a GNotary server to provide the actually notarization on a separate system.

4.9. Res Medicinae

Res Medicinae is supposed to be a comprising software solution for use in Medicine which combines intuitive ease of use with the advantages of the Java platform. It uses latest technology adhering to common standards for medical software and will such be open to many other medical systems.is the attempt to overcome high pricing in the realm of medical information systems and to provide users with a stable, platform independent, extensive system using latest technology and being open to many other medical systems.

4.10. The LittleFish Health Project

The LittleFish project is a user friendly patient information and recall system on an open source basis for the use by any community health organization. The project will follow the GEHR or Good Electronic Health Record standards. This Site has a lot of useful information about the what is involved in trying to design the project.

4.11. Free Practice Management - FreePM

FreePM is an open source project to create a provider designed patient centered electronic medical record and practice management application. This is probably one of the most developed projects out there, seems already quite usable in its Demo. More significantly, they offer services to help actually run their software in a real office, but all the code is opensource and they seem committed to this philosophy.

I have successfully installed this and gotten it to run. Please look for further info in chapter 7.

Read a review of it HERE.

4.12. Open Infrastructure for Outcomes

OIO is a Web-based information system for treatment outcome management. It is in production at the Harbor/UCLA Medical Center for clinical outcomes management and research data. Forms created with OIO and hosted on any OIO server can be downloaded as XML files. Once downloaded from the "Forms library" and imported into an OIO server, the necessary database tables are automatically recreated and the imported forms become immediately available to the users of that OIO server.

Note: This application is already in quite useful, but lacks 'already-made' forms for use. But these can be quickly designed within the application's interface quickly. Another to really try!

4.13. myPACS

MyPACS is a Web-based medical image management system. It is written in PHP 3.x and uses MySQL for the relational database back-end. It features searching capabilities, uploading of images and patient data from a Web browser into shared and private image repositories, and thumbnail creation and image conversion using ImageMagick. Currently MyPACS is not compatible with the DICOM standard.

4.14. LIMS - Laboratory Information Management Systems

The LIMS ASTM Standard (E1578 Standard Guide for Laboratory Information Management Systems) can be found in ASTM`s Annual Book of Standards Volume 14.01 Healthcare Informatics; Computerized Systems and Chemical and Material Information. There is a small terminology section in this standard that covers 25 terms that relate to LIMS. The purpose of the standard guide is to educate new LIMS users on the purpose and functions and the process of procuring a LIMS.

There is one other additional LIMS related standard in this book. This E2066 Standard Guide for Validation of Laboratory Information Management Systems. The BlazeLIMS Server by Blaze Systems Corporation LIMS is now supported on Linux.

4.15. Meditux

Meditux is Java-servlet based software that provides a Web interface to MySQL or potentially any relational database engine which is JDBC capable. It was developed to support an Intranet site in a medical intensive care unit where it was used to collect clinical and research data.

4.16. MEGA and Mumps Compiler

Mumps Compiler is a compiler for a subset of the Mumps language, a language used mainly in health care. It is compatible with most operating systems with a standard C compiler. License: GPL OMEGA is an Open Source implementation of the M-Technology (MUMPS) programming language. It is extend-able, and currently embedded with MySQL; it is ideal as a trigger/validation front-end to SQL. License: free for non-commercial use.