Much open source software is being developed to help improve conditions throughout the world, such as this software developed by CURE International.
The Screening Room
When open source software is used for global health and global relief work, its benefits shine bright. The benefits of open source become very clear when human health and human lives are on the line. In this YouTube video, hear Harrisburg, Pennsylvania software developer Joel Worrall explain about HospitalRun software – open source cloud-based software used at developing world healthcare facilities.
Stay in the loop with the medical outreach work being done by CURE International, the organization that Joel Worrall works for, via the organization’s website, Twitter feed and YouTube channel. And the software described in the video can be found at HospitalRun’s GitHub respository. Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere, that open source is expanding hope around the world.
For the past 10 years, Phil has been working at a public library in the Washington D.C.-area, helping youth and adults use the 28 public Linux stations the library offers seven days a week. He also writes for MAKE magazine, Opensource.com and TechSoup Libraries. Suggest videos by contacting Phil on Twitter or at pshapiro@his.com.
Having a hospital solution in the cloud is a fairly bad idea: There, where the hospital software is needed most, there is mostly no or only very bad internet connection. You need to have the solution running locally, thats the only chance, and not only in Africa.
For those who are interested, there is another medical solution for hospitals and practitioners: health.gnu.org
It can run from servers (of course), USB stick or Raspi.