MeanMicio

IWEEE 2012 Granada : Commitment

2012-01-19T18:19:00.000-03:00

The International Workshop on e-health in Emerging Economies (IWEEE) keeps getting better on each edition ! This time we celebrated it during the days 11th and 12th of January in Granada, Spain.

IWEEE is organized by GNU Solidario, and it has become the central point to discuss Free Software in Health .

As our friend Cesar Brod mentioned, IWEEE 2012 has been the most successful and collaborative of all. Two days of very interesting presentations and a very productive round table.

In this two-days event, we had been honored by the delegates of the following institutions :

United Nations University (UNU)
Doctors Without Borders (MSF)
United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
Government of Brazil
Government of Paraguay
International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA)
European Federation of Medical Informatics (EFMI)
Free Software Community : Brodtec, Domatix, FSF, NaN, Nextma and Thymbra

These two days have been very busy, with many great presentations and a fruitful round table, were we have set up goals to achieve in this year 2012, in terms of free software adoption in ehealth, standards, implementations, documentation, mobile integration and interoperability, among others.

Thanks to the United Nations delegates, to Raúl Zambrano from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and to Dr. Salleh, Dr. Syed and Dr. Nurhizam from United Nations University, Institute of Global Health, not only for their active role in their presentations and round table, but for sponsoring the event.

Thank you Inma, Anne, Thang, Manuel and Ludovic from Doctors without Borders. Having MSF among us is very motivating. You are an example to follow inside and outside the field. We all learn a lot from your experience and suggestions !

Team from IWEEE 2012 - Granada

Thank you to the representatives of Latin America governments. Cesar Brod, from the government of Brazil, who has been present since the first edition of IWEEE, and the hosts of IWEEE Brazil for all these years. Thank you all to our friends from the government of Paraguay, to Nicolas Caballero who proposed the IWEEE in Granada, and to Dr. Gamarra, who was the delegate of Paraguay Ministry of Health at the round table. This shows how the South has taken the lead in adopting Free Software.

Ironically, there was nobody from the Andalusian Autonomous Government (Junta de Andalucía). Hopefully next time we'll have them. It would have been nice to share and discuss with them what is being done in e-health using Free Software.

Thank you Thomas Karopka and Etienne Saliez, also "founding fathers" of IWEEE, whose contribution and participation since the first edition has been key for the increasing success of IWEEE. Thank you Frank Lievens (Medetel) for coming over and for promoting the conference over these years !

Thanks to the Free Software community, represented by Joice Käfer (Brodtec); Albert Cervera (NaN); Carlos Sánchez; Pablo José (FSF);Nacho, Angel and Roberto (Domatix), and Adbrahman from NEXTMA, from Morocco. We need to keep on growing this community to be able to deliver solutions to more institutions and improve the quality of the current eHealth systems.

Last but not least, thanks to Selene and Cristina, who made sure everything went as planned !

IWEEE has become the reference and meeting point for Free Software in Health, and it's all thanks to you. Personally, I had a great time in Granada and learned a lot from all of you !

I'm looking forward to seeing all of you in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in IWEEE 2013 . We'll also wait for our UNU-IIGH and Brazilian friends for specific dates in IWEEE Kuala Lumpur and Brazil for this year.

We'll be uploading the pictures from the two days and night. We will also upload the presentations to the IWEEE homepage shortly.

GNU Solidario welcomes Lomonosov Moscow University in Buenos Aires

2011-12-07T11:57:00.001-03:00

Lomonosov Moscow State University - Faculty of Medicine in Buenos Aires.

[ Just a brief summary of the main article from the GNU Solidario blog, where you can find the main article.]

On December 5th. in the city of Buenos Aires (Argentina) GNU Solidario welcomed a delegation of the Lomonosov Moscow State University - Faculty of Medicine (Russia).

I want to thank the Barceló University for their tremendous help in every aspect of the logistics of the event. Many thanks to the Dr. Cosme Argerich Hospital, for the great day and guided tour of their health center.

The Russian Delegation, lead by Prof. Oleg Medvedev, (VD, Ph.D) Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology. Professor Oleg got in touch with me around a month ago. They wanted to get a deeper understanding of the Health care system in Argentina.

Group Picture at Dr. Cosme Argerich Hospital

Dr. Simes and Dr. Medvedev

Signing the cooperation agreement. Dr. Héctor A. Barceló and Dr. Oleg Medvedev

Luis Falcón and Dr. Medvedev

Luis Falcón presenting GNU Health

Prof. Dr. Adrian Barceló and Luis Falcón

Luis Falcón and Dr. Medvedev at the closing session

Dr. Meirovich, former minister of health Dr. H. Lombardo, Dr. Medvedev

Dr. Medvedev showed us great mobile ECG and real-time cardiac monitoring devices (seen on top of the table)

I'm positive this is just the beginning of a very productive relationship between GNU Solidario and the Moscow State University.

GNU Health en el Instituto de Previsión Social y Ministerio de Salud Pública de Paraguay

2011-11-29T14:12:00.001-03:00

El sábado regresamos de Paraguay, donde fuimos invitados por el Gabinete Civil de la Presidencia de la República (Nicolás Caballero - Coordinador de Innovación Tecnológica - ) y por el departamento de informática del Instituto de Previsión Social ( Ana Ayala - CIO de la Dirección Informática - y Rosa González - Líder del departamento informático de Salud - ), para presentar GNU Health , el sistema Libre de Gestión Hospitalaria y de Salud.

Me alegra ver como Paraguay adopta Software Libre en sus sistemas de Salud Pública , en equipo, desde el Gabinete de la Presidencia, el Instituto de Previsión Social (IPS) y el Ministerio de Salud Pública y Bienestar Social (MSPBS).

Actualmente Paraguay encara la informática médica como un bien público, inseparable del contexto de Salud Pública.

En el hospital Dr. Emilio Cubas. El centro de salud más grande de Paraguay

Pasamos dos días en Asunción, visitando las diferentes clínicas y hospitales, así como en reuniones con los profesionales de la salud y del gobierno. En estas reuniones, Nicolás Caballero nos explicó las resoluciones que el gobierno de Paraguay está tomando para la adopción de software libre en salud pública.

Nicolás Caballero, Julio Perrota, Ana Ayala, Nelson Caballero, Rosa González y la Dra Carmen Frutos

Luis Falcón, Nurhizam Safie, Cristina Melgosa, Rosa González y Ana Ayala

Después de visitar distintos centros de salud, nos reunimos con el equipo de informática, con quienes discutimos detalles técnicos de GNU Health, como el entorno de programación, seguridad, escalabilidad y reporting. También nos mostraron su centro de datos donde brindan soporte a todo el país.

Explicando detalles técnicos de GNU Health en el Hospital General

En la clínica Nanawa: Nurhizam Safie, Luis Falcón, Cristina Melgosa, María Victoria Benítez

El Doctor Nurhizam Safie, de la Universidad de las Naciones Unidas, Instituto Internacional de Salud Global (UNU-IIGH), partner de GNU Solidario, nos mostró implementaciones de GNU Health en Asia, África y Latinoamérica.

Nurhizam enfatizó el compromiso de las UNU - el brazo académico de las Naciones Unidas - con GNU Health y su posible implementación en el sistema de salud pública de Paraguay, como medio de universalidad la salud. Al día de hoy, la Universidad de las Naciones unidas provee capacitación en GNU Health.

Dr. Nurhizam Safie de las Naciones Unidas en su presentación de GNU Health en IPS

Parte del equipo de informática en el hospital central

Rosa González, líder del departamento de sistemas informáticos de salud, nos llevó a recorrer los distintos centros de salud, y sus departamentos. Entre ellos : Farmacia, Laboratorio, citas, hospitalización y diagnóstico por imágenes.

Rosa explicó a su equiopo la licencia GPL ( GNU General Public License), por lo que ellos tienen toda la libertad de usar y parametrizar GNU Health con el fin de adecuarlo a sus necesidades. Recalqué la importancia de trabajar con la comunidad, porque ellos son parte de la comunidad y aportarán valor agregado al proyecto. GNU Health es el resultado del esfuerzo de equipos multi-disciplinarios y multi-culturales.

En el hospital Geriátrico

Nurhizam, Cristina Melgosa and Rosa González en el salón de entrada del IPS

El viernes al mediodía fuimos invitados por la Dra. Graciela Gamarra, Directora General de Información Estratégica en Salud, del Ministerio de Salud Pública y Bienestar Social. Julio Galeana nos mostró los desarrollos que ha realizado el ministerio en software libre en epidemiología.

Conversamos sobre la posibilidad de integrar los sistemas actuales con GNU Health, y su enlace con el sistema de epidemiología actual.

Aprovechando para almorzar

Quiero agradecer al Gobierno de Paraguay por su invitación y hospitalidad, en particular a Rosa González, Ana Ayala y Nicolás Caballero, quienes desde IWEEE Brasil mostraron su interés por llevar a cabo esta reunión. Gracias a Juan Carlos Ávalos y el equipo de logística por hacernos sentir como en casa !

Hoy Latinoamércia es un punto de referencia en la adopción de Software Libre en administración y salud pública, brindando equidad y universalidad en salud a sus habitantes.

Por último, gracias a Richard Stallman, padre del software libre, quien habló del proyecto con Nicolás Caballero en su momento y nos refirió.

Acerca de GNU Health

GNU Health es el sistema Gestión Hospitalaria y de Información de salud de Software Libre que ofrece las siguientes funciones :

Expediente Médico Electrónico (EMR)
Sistema de Gestión Hospitalaria (HIS)
Sistema de Información de Salud (Epidemiología)

GNU Health es parte de GNU Solidario, una ONG que implementa soluciones de Salud y Educación mediante software libre.

GNU Health es software oficial del sistema GNU, adoptado por Richard Stallman y la Free Software Foundation. Las Naciones Unidas, por medio del Instituto Internacional de Salud Global, capacita y promueve el uso de GNU Health en los países donde tienen presencia.

Gobiernos con GNU Health en sus Portales

Brasil : Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB)
Comunidad Europea : OSOR / JoinUp

Página principal : health.gnu.org

GNU Health at Paraguay Ministry of Public Health

2011-11-26T17:25:00.011-03:00

I just got back from Paraguay, where we were invited by Mr. Nicolás Caballero from the Paraguayan Government to talk about GNU Health at the Social Security Institute (IPS - Instituto de Previsión Social ) and Ministry of Public Health .

It's great to see how Paraguay is adopting Free Software in the Public Health System, working as a team, from the Presidency office, the Social Security Institute (IPS) and the Ministry of Public Health (MSPBS).

I noticed how the government conceives Health informatics as a public good, an integral component of Public Health.

At Dr. Emilio Cubas Hospital. The largest health center in Paraguay

We spent two non-stop days in Asunción, capital of Paraguay, visiting the different health centers and having meetings with health officials. In those meetings, Nicolas Caballero explained the latest and concrete resolutions that the Paraguayan government is taking on Free Software adoption in public health care.

Nicolas Caballero and Social Security Institute (IPS) members

Luis Falcón, Nurhizam Safie, Cristina Melgosa, Rosa González and Ana Ayala (director of Informatics) from IPS

After visiting the different health centers, we had a meeting with the information system team, with whom we discussed the technical details about GNU Health, such as the programming environment, security, scalability and reporting.

Explaining technical details about GNU Health at the General Hospital

At Clinica Nanawa

Dr. Nurhizam Safie, from the United Nations University, Institute of Global Health explained the partnership with GNU Solidario, and implementation cases of GNU Health in Asia, Africa and Latinamerica.

Nurhizam stressed the commitment of the UNU - the academic branch of the United Nations - with GNU Health and the implementation in the Paraguayan Public Health system, as a way of delivering universality in health care. Today UNU provides training and capacity building in GNU Health implementations.

Dr. Nurhizam Safie from United Nations University, talking about the UNU commitment to the project

Part of the Informatics department team at Central Hospital led by Rosa González

Ms. Rosa González, Social Security Institute chief of the informatics department, gave us an extensive tour throughout different health institutions and their departments. Among them: Pharmacy, Laboratory, Appointments, Inpatient administration and Imaging.

Rosa explained to her team that GNU Health is licensed under GPL, the GNU General Public License, so they have all the freedom to use and custumize GNU Health to fit their needs. I stressed the importance of working with the community, so the health informatics team can always ask questions in public forums and share with us their developments and bug fixes. GNU Health is the result of many contributions and feedback from an international community and multi-disciplinary teams.

At the Geriatric Hospital

Dr Nurhizam, Cristina Melgosa and Rosa González at IPS entrance hall

On Friday afternoon we were invited by Dr. Graciela Gamarra, General Director of Strategic Health Information Systems, from the Health Ministry (Ministerio de Salud Pública y Bienestar Social). They showed us their current epidemiology systems that are being built on Free Software.

We also discussed on integrating all the current systems with GNU Health, and link it to the current epidemiology engine.

Taking a break

I want to thank the government of Paraguay for inviting us and for the hospitality, they made us feel at home.

But most importantly, I want to thank the government of Paraguay for the commitment with Free Software in Public Health. Latin America is today a leader in the adoption of Free Software in public administrations, delivering equity and universality in health care for their habitants.

Last but not least, thanks to Richard Stallman, who referred GNU Health to Nicolás Caballero , chief technology innovation officer of the Presidency office. Thanks Nicolás for making this possible !

About GNU Health
GNU Health is a free Health and Hospital Information System that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)

Hospital Information System (HIS)

Health Information System

GNU Health is an official GNU Package and is part of GNU Solidario. GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health to emerging economies with free software.

GNU Health is the Hospital Information System chosen by the United Nations International Institute of Global Health.

Main site : health.gnu.org

Governments hosting GNU Health through their portals :

European Commission (EU) , OSOR

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB)

GNU Health 1.4.1 released !

2011-10-29T16:38:00.005-03:00

I'm happy to announce the release of GNU Health 1.4.1, in which we have incorporated support for PyPI, the Python Package Index

This version is compatible with the latest tryton release (2.2.0). Now GNU Health is also a set of python modules, fully integrated to the Python community.

Thanks to the magic of pip, and the help of the Tryton community ( Cedric Krier, et al ), installing the latest GNU Health version is as easy as running

pip install --user trytond_health_profile

This will install the requirements ( the tryton server and all the standard GNU Health modules ) automatically and in your "$HOME/.local" directory. I will be updating the installation process at the wiki today.
The main site is the GNU Savannah where all the development and discussion takes place.

There are many improvements, bug fixes and news features, some of them :

CalDav compatibility (it allows complex calendar views and settings for appointments and hospitalizations)
Support for JSON RPC protocol
Fully Tryton 2.2 compatible
Enhanced Medication form
New Medicament categories
Medication pregnancy category
Included the latest WHO essential medicines (17th edition)
New translation engine (to be used with .po format)
Improve Laboratory model and functionality

Thanks to all of you for contributing with your code, testing, translating and documenting the project !

About GNU Health

GNU Health (formerly known as "Medical") is a free (GPL license), Health and Hospital Information System that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)

Hospital Information System (HIS)

Health Information System

GNU Health is an official GNU Package and is part of GNU Solidario. GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health to emerging economies with free software.

GNU Health is the Hospital Information System chosen by the United Nations International Institute of Global Health.

Main site : health.gnu.org

Governments hosting GNU Health through their portals :

European Commission (EU) , OSOR

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB)

Developing countries NOT in the OpenERP agenda

2011-10-04T11:57:00.002-03:00

This is a segment of the letter from Doctor Christoph Larsen, in April 2011, who was working in Rwanda and asked OpenERP for the upgrade scripts and OpenERP refused to give them to him. Dr. Larsen gave me his permission to publish it, so the community knows his point of view.

When Dr.Larsen sent me the mail, I started the migration to GNU Health in the Tryton environment. And no, this is no FUD, this is the reality of was has become of OpenERP.

[..] Please do realise that our group speaks an entirely different language: We do not target the profit-making market, and regarding the combination of OpenERP's Medical module, the underlying OpenERP backbone for health facility management and Bika Health, we are actually talking LDCs = read: Least Developed Countries. There is no money for any such partnerships, warranties and the like. People out there are haoy to learn from each other, and you will be surprised how keen they ARE to learn. BUT: A few thousand Euros for warranties (imagine a governmental multi-user installation!) - no way!!! In fact, I can tell you from my very own experience with various East and Central African governments that such upgrade path is an exclusion criterion in public tenders. Many governments, after having been burnt by numerous First World approaches to software expressively demand full and complete ownership, which includes control over the upgrade path. I cannot blame them, because, contrary to common belief in the West, there is no money left on the table, if we charge less for more. Instead, something might actually - in the end - arrive at the bottom end, for the patients' and grassroot's benefit.
A different market altogether. I would be delighted to see OpenERP provide the script, and with capable people like Luis, various other groups, the South African Bika team and myself, we might well figure out a beautiful and lively howto, how to go from verison 5 to 6, and further on. As you talked of 7 emails, by remote control, only, it is certainly easily doable! This is not a request for free services, but for transparency, and, yes, NO lock-in. At present, the Rwandan biomedical equipment management data are, in fact, locked in, into version 5. You may understand that this, and your change of policy, does not make such end user institutions happy. This also has serious consequences for users of the Medical module. It is utterly unthinkable that users (especially those in poor settings) cannot upgrade to a new version, and risk losing all they last version's data, without dishing out a few thousand Euros.Your input and an, as I most strongly believe, urgently required reconsideration of your strategy, are highly welcome.
With best regards,

Dr. Chris H. Larsen

Quite sad, isn't it ? Of course, no answer from OpenERP. Clearly, developing or Least Developed Countries are not in the OpenERP agenda.

Luckily, we have now a much more robust Health system, official GNU Package, that is 100% free and community-based. If your center is stuck with OpenERP, please contact us and we'll be happy to help you out in the migration to Tryton.

About GNU Health

GNU Health (formerly known as "Medical") is a free (GPL license), Health and Hospital Information System that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)

Hospital Information System (HIS)

Health Information System

GNU Health is part of GNU Solidario. GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health to emerging economies with free software.

Main site : health.gnu.org

Governments and Institutions hosting GNU Health through their portals :

European Commission (EU) , OSOR

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB)

United Nations University International Institute of Global Health

Tordesillas, España. Año 2011.

2011-09-19T17:55:00.000-03:00

Difícil contener las lágrimas ante tanta crueldad y sadismo.

Únicamente personas y políticos carentes de compasión , con un alma realmente enferma pueden permitir y disfrutar estos macabros espectáculos.

Hoy en día, este tipo de eventos son declarados de interés turístico. Ay mi Dios ! Qué sociedad podrida tenemos ... Dónde está la justicia ? O acaso el maltrato animal no está tipificado ? Pareciera que en España hay espacios donde lo macabro y lo sádico está amparado. No entiendo nada.

Por favor, terminemos con esta barbarie de una vez !

Señores políticos, por favor, atiendan el reclamo de la gran mayoría de los ciudadanos e ilegalicen este macabro negocio de las corridas de toros y otros eventos donde se maltratan a los animales. Sean un ejemplo de una sociedad moderna y humanitaria, donde se respetan a todos los animales.

Por último, a ti, lector, no dejes que te invada la desesperanza . Estoy convencido que con tu ayuda tendremos una sociedad más justa y compasiva.

Apoya al PACMA o a otro partido que abiertamente defienda los derechos humanos y de los animales y que condene públicamente el maltrato animal, en su significado más extenso.

GNU Health 1.3.3 released

2011-09-19T04:37:00.000-03:00

I'm pleased to announce GNU Health 1.3.3

This version could be considered a milestone in itself, due the major changes and new features:

New naming convention of modules and models. From medical to gnuhealth
New installation scripts (setup.py) .
Major improvements in the Laboratory module. Now we have automatic visual alerts, possibility to exclude analytes from the analysis, qualitative and quantitative testing. Contextualize results in the patient status (gender, age, comorbidities ... ).

Screenshot of a sample lab report on GNU Health 1.3.3

As in every new release, bugs are fixed, navigation improved and new features are includes.

Since Health is now part of the official GNU system, the development is hosted at GNU Savannah.

Last but not least... many thanks to Cedric and Tryton community for getting involved in the GNU Health project !

About GNU Health

GNU Health (formerly known as "Medical") is a free (GPL license), Health and Hospital Information System that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

GNU Health is part of GNU Solidario. GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health to emerging economies with free software.

Main site : health.gnu.org

Governments hosting GNU Health through their portals :

European Commission (EU) , OSOR

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB)

Otra fiesta de sádicos en Tordesillas

2011-09-13T10:41:00.000-03:00

Hace unas horas, los sádicos de Tordesillas han acribillado a "Afligido". Seguramente en estos momentos los asesinos estén regocijándose de la tortura que le han infligido al pobre animal.

Fiesta de sádicos y cobardes en Tordesillas 2011, disfrutando del asesinato

Los sádicos remataron al toro degollándolo con un destornillador...

Espero realmente que haya justicia de una vez por todas, y a esta gentuza, verdaderos sádicos y asesinos los metan en la cárcel. Esta basura que, de manera colectiva lancea en Tordesillas o que le rompen el cuello a una vaquilla en un encierro popular (ver video) debe ir a la cárcel.

Reportaje de "La Sexta" from PACMA TV on Vimeo.

Lo más grave de todo esto es que tenemos a unos políticos que promueven la tortura y el asesinato de estos animalitos. Con la excusa de la tradición (más bien traición) se comenten estas atrocidades. Todo esto con dinero público.

Debemos comenzar a luchar de manera activa contra esta barbarie. Como miembro del PACMA sugiero establecer una serie de medidas a debatir, porque ellos, los indefensos, no pueden hacerlo.

La primera que me viene es que no debemos votar a aquel partido político que no denuncie las corridas de toros, y cualquier otro evento donde exista el maltrato animal. Esos partidos no nos representan.

Para más información sobre el alcalde actual de Tordesillas que permite esta barbarie, visiten :

http://alcaldedetordesillas.es/

Me quedo esperando justicia y con la frase del gran José Saramago : "Si disfrutas viendo sufrir a un animal, no eres un ser humano, eres un monstruo.".

Break a Spear !

2011-09-11T15:46:00.000-03:00

Let's break a spear ! We must stop the brutal killing and sadistic "tradition" of El Toro de la Vega in Tordesillas, Spain.

Spanish politicians, please put Spain into the civilized countries once for all, and stop the bullfighting, Toro de la Vega and any other event that mistreat the animals.

Gandhi said, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated". Hmm, you can guess the current moral progress of my country then ... I'm confident though that we'll be able to change it !

Free Software versus Open Source: Tryton vs OpenERP

2011-09-08T02:18:00.000-03:00

I could write many pages, but it all comes down to one concept: ethics.

When I talk about Free Software, I talk about not only about freedom, but also community and good will from the software author. The latter probably is the most important one.

You write Free Software because you want to contribute to the community. It's an act of social activism. It's about sharing and helping out.

This April I got a mail from Chris Larsen, a doctor working in Rwanda, where he was asking OpenERP the scripts to upgrade to 6.x, since they needed to have the latest Medical version. The response he got was that the scripts were not publicly available anymore. If they wanted to upgrade, they would have to pay a support contract to OpenERP. This is the typical example of a vendor lock-in. They change the rules (even the license) and then the user becomes their prisoner.

That very same day I started the implementation of GNU Health (previously called "medical") in the Tryton platform. Believe me, this was frustrating and it meant a lot of work, but I had to guarantee the future for the health centers.

That effort paid off. Today Health (GNU Health) is an official GNU package (health.gnu.org), the United Nations University has adopted it, and everyday health centers are downloading it from the GNU official site. Obviously, the GNU Health version that today is an official GNU package runs under Tryton, a community-based project.

I just got an email today that a health center in RDC ( Democratic Republic of Congo ) after testing the functionality, will be using GNU Health under Tryton.

Open Source has become the refuge for some speculators, who apply digital lock-ins, by, for example, not releasing the upgrade scripts. This is not fair. It's not ethical. It's not thinking about the community. It's being selfish and greedy. Lastly, it's not respecting the underlying software.

OpenERP and Tryton need Python, Postgresql and GNU/Linux. If Python or Postgresql would impose a support contract fee to be able to upgrade, they would not exist. So, none of us have the right to break the evolution chain.

So, a word of advice . Make sure you use Free Software. This is more than just a license. They should be community-based projects.

Some signs of warning to keep in mind : Avoid software that has a "buy" link instead of a "download", or "1 month free". Those are signs of vendor lock-in strategies. Also, be wary of "Commercial Open Source", projects, led by private corporations. They are usually there only for their money and don't care about you.

If you are a programmer, you can - and you should - make money from Free Software. You can make a good income by giving training sessions and implementing your software. Free Software is both ethical and a great way of making your living !

As the author of GNU Health, and as the president of GNU Solidario, my commitment is to the community and the underprivileged, so rest assured that I will always suggest you the best environment for your health center. Now that GNU Health is an official GNU package, our mission is supported and backed up by the Free Software Foundation and the United Nations.

Richard Stallman declares GNU Health an official package

2011-08-29T07:37:00.000-03:00

"It is a great day for Free Software. It is a great day for Public Health".
That was my response to Richard's announcement about making GNU Health an official GNU package.

Being an official GNU package means that it's Free Software, in the widest sense of the term. Means that is not only freely available, but it provides freedom to the user, and it has no digital locks.

In Healthcare, this concept is even more important. Health and Hospital Information Systems must be a public good, that don't depend on the will of a corporation. They must be free of any type of lock-ins. So, the user that has the software will be able to use it, adapt it, and upgrade it when needed.

That's why we chose Tryton as the GNU Health framework environment.A community-based project free of speculators.

I want to thank Richard Stallman and the GNU project, especially Karl Berry, for including GNU Health, and helping us out in the registration process.

Finally, we are changing the official download sites. We will be hosting the GNU Health archives at :

- The European Open Source Observatory and Repository
- The GNU Savannah

For more information, please check the GNU Health homepage at www.gnuhealth.org

About GNU Health

GNU Health (formerly known as "Medical") is a free (GPL license), Health and Hospital Information System that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

GNU Health is part of GNU Solidario. GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health to emerging economies with free software.

Main site : www.gnuhealth.org

Governments hosting GNU Health through their portals :

European Commission (EU) , OSOR

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB)

GNU Health release 1.3.0 with support for Tryton

2011-08-16T02:18:00.000-03:00

After several months of work, I just finished uploading the latest development GNU Health release, 1.3.0 !

This version has many improvements, and, the most important part is that is Tryton compatible. This is indeed very good news for the Free Software community. Now everyone can use GNU Health, knowing that there is a free ( freedom) option in all the related software around it ( ERP, Database and Operating System).

GNU Health 1.3.0 running on Tryton and in Debian/GNU Linux . Genetics screenshot

This development release is ideal to check the latest features, and get and sneak preview of what is coming in December, when the next stable release (2.0) comes out.

Some of the new features in this release are :

Full Tryton support
New configuration script to automate the installation
New Pediatrics module, including neonatology
Improved security (user login information is encrypted thanks to Tryton)
New reporting system, creating reports directly from Libre Office
Improved ergonomics and navigation
Automatic calculation for Smilkstein Family APGAR
Automatic calculation for Psychiatric Symptoms Checklist
Bug fixes and model improvements

Please go to the GNU Health homepage, download it and let us know ! Share your ideas, suggestions with the community in our mailing list so we keep improving the Free Health and Hospital Information System !

About GNU Health

GNU Health (formerly known as "Medical") is a free (GPL license), Health and Hospital Information System that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

GNU Health is part of GNU Solidario ( http://gnusolidario.org/en ) . GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health to emerging economies with free software.

Main site : http://medical.sf.net

Governments hosting GNU Health through their portals :

European Commission (EU) , OSOR : http://medical.forge.osor.eu

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB) :http://www.softwarepublico.gov.br/dotlrn/clubs/medicalbr

GNU Health Academia at the United Nations University

2011-07-21T21:55:00.000-03:00

I finally found some time to summarize GNU Health Academia at the United Nations University, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, during the last week of June. The workshop was a success and I had a great time in KL !

The workshop was held at the International Institute of Global Health (IIGH), where I had the opportunity to train the United Nations team in GNU Health concepts, both from the functional and technical point of view.

GNU Health Academia participants, Luis Falcón, and the United Nations University directors at the International Institute of Global Health building

In the workshop, we worked on the installation and customization of GNU Health, as well as in implementation concepts.

I also showed them the new developments and GNU Health on Tryton, a very solid, scalable and, most importantly, a truly free, community-based platform.

Some UNU - IIGH participants at the GNU Health Academia

Many thanks to Dr. Nurhizam Safie, Dr. Mohamed Salleh, Dr. Syed Aljunid and all the International Institute of Global Health (UNU-IIGH) team from the IIGH, for their hospitality and for embracing Free Software to improve the lives of the underserved around the globe.

The GNU Health Academia at the United Nations University is in the context of collaboration among UNU-IIGH and GNU Solidario to improve healthcare with free software and capacity building.

You can find the GNU Health training 2011 event at the UNU-IIGH portal:

http://iigh.unu.edu/?q=node/63

About the United Nations University :

The UN University is dedicated to the generation and transfer of knowledge, and the strengthening of individual and institutional capacities in furtherance of the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

The mission of UN University is to contribute, through collaborative research, capacity development, and advisory services to efforts to resolve the pressing global problems of human survival, development and welfare that are the concern of the United Nations, its Peoples and Member States.

Web Page : http://www.unu.edu

About GNU Health

GNU Health (formerly known as "Medical") is a free (GPL license), Health and Hospital Information System that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

Medical is part of GNU Solidario ( http://gnusolidario.org/en ) . GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health to emerging economies with free software.

Main site : http://medical.sf.net

Governments hosting Medical through their portals :

European Commission (EU) , OSOR : http://medical.forge.osor.eu

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB) : http://www.softwarepublico.gov.br/dotlrn/clubs/medicalbr

First GNU Health Academia in United Nations University

2011-06-24T16:37:00.000-03:00

I'm happy to announce that the GNU Health Academy will be inaugurated next June 27th 2011 with a very special host, the United Nations University (UNU), in Kuala Lumpur.

The UNU International Institute for Global Health (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) undertakes research, capacity development and dissemination of knowledge related to key issues of human health. The aim is to contribute to the development and strengthening of health services policy frameworks and management actions, particularly for people in developing countries, and to support implementation of promotive and preventive approach to human health [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_University ]

I will be training the UNU personnel, which are our local partners in Asia. The UNU - IIGH will train local health proffessionals in the use of GNU Health, the Free Health and Hospital Information System.

As I said in a previous post, this is another example of how free software can leverage the resources to help the developing countries. Many thanks to Mr Nurhizam Safie Mohd Satar who is leading the MEDICAL integration project at the United Nations University - International Institute for Global Health (IIGH).

This common effort will increase the amount of physicians using Free Software, and we will all benefit with their valuable feedback.

About the United Nations University :

The UN University is dedicated to the generation and transfer of knowledge, and the strengthening of individual and institutional capacities in furtherance of the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

The mission of UN University is to contribute, through collaborative research, capacity development, and advisory services to efforts to resolve the pressing global problems of human survival, development and welfare that are the concern of the United Nations, its Peoples and Member States.

Web Page : http://www.unu.edu

About GNU Health

GNU Health (formerly known as "Medical") is a free (GPL license), Health and Hospital Information System that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

Medical is part of GNU Solidario ( http://gnusolidario.org/en ) . GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health solutions with free software.

Main site : http://medical.sf.net

Governments hosting Medical through their portals :

European Commission (EU) , OSOR : http://medical.forge.osor.eu

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB) : http://www.softwarepublico.gov.br/dotlrn/clubs/medicalbr

Masaki Clinic in Tanzania chooses MEDICAL

2011-06-03T15:31:00.000-03:00

I'm happy to announce that the Masaki International Clinic in Tanzania chose MEDICAL as their Hospital Information System.

The Health center has specialists in :

- Family Medicine
- Tropical diseases
- Obstetrics and Gynecology
- Pneumology
- Mental health
- Endocrinology
- Diet and lifestyle counseling
- Physiotherapy

Today MEDICAL , GNU Solidario Free Health and Hospital Information System is helping health centers around the world improving the quality of life of their patients and families.

About Medical

Medical is a free (GPL license), centralized Health and Hospital Information System that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

Medical is part of GNU Solidario ( http://gnusolidario.org/en ) . GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health solutions with free software.

Main site : http://medical.sf.net

Governments hosting Medical through their portals :

European Commission (EU) , OSOR : http://medical.forge.osor.eu

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB) : http://www.softwarepublico.gov.br/dotlrn/clubs/medicalbr

Thymbra Academy OpenERP: May 16-20, 2011

2011-05-22T15:54:00.000-03:00

Thymbra Academy: May 16-20: What a Great Week.

Sorry I couldn't be there, but I was on the MEDICAL European Tour !

Again this Thymbra OpenERP Academy was a total success. I hope to see you next time.

Here are some pics :

Next Academy: June 13-17, 2011

Book your Training:

http://thymbra.com

http://thymbra.com/en/training/training.html

Indignados demonstration in Spain. Analogies in Free Software community

2011-05-22T10:46:00.000-03:00

Yesterday I returned to Buenos Aires from my European tour. It was a very productive week in Geneva and Barcelona, talking about MEDICAL with colleagues, partners, and organizations interested in implementing and joining the MEDICAL project. We also talked about the next version of MEDICAL, Tryton and OpenERP.

Angel, Albert Cervera (Nan Tic) and Luis Falcón in Barcelona

Nice dinner with the NaN tic guys. We talked about the OpenERP community, and the need of having a governance in Free Software projects without censorship or being partial. We all see today how speculators are getting into the "open source" and the techniques they are using to lock-in users.

As I said in an interview last year in OpenERP ( http://www.openerp.com/node/549 ), at the end of the day, is your actions what counts, not the tools that you use. By the way, I hope this interview remains there and won't be censored, as my latest emails ;)

Cool street names in Barcelona :)

Finally, I had the chance to go and support the "Indignados" demonstration in Plaza Cataluña, against politicians and private companies responsible of the crisis that we - as the community - have to suffer.

"Indignados" demonstration in Barcelona

After all, greed puts at risk the development and dignity of communities. The same greedy hands are the ones destroying societies and the free software projects.

Luckily, these people in Barcelona and in the rest of Spain, as well as the free software advocates, have the conviction to fight for our dignity and future.

Bests
Luis

MEDICAL welcomes Tryton !

2011-05-20T14:19:00.000-03:00

I have great news for the Free Software advocates.

We have started working in extending MEDICAL to support the Tryton ERP. Tryton is a great ERP with a solid free software philosophy, not only for releasing the source code, but by having NO LOCK-IN policies. So this is what we will achieve

- Freedom of choice : Now the user will have complete freedom in Operating System, Database or ERP . The user will be able to choose from OpenERP or Tryton.

- Guarantee Upgrades : MEDICAL must rely on an architecture that allows the user to upgrade their infrastructure. The users and health centers should have the upgrade tools and documentation to update the operating system, database and ERP at no cost if they choose to do. Today we see that concept in GNU/Linux, Postgresql and Tryton. This schema guarantees that the end user has the best and most updated MEDICAL version, as well as the underlining components.

In this sense, we, as a community, will always be vigilant to any lock-in strategy in the underlying software (operating system, database or ERP) that could compromise its sustainability.

Many organizations around the world have chosen MEDICAL to improve the lives of the underprivileged. This community keeps growing because not only because of its technical capabilities, but also because of the free software philosophy behind it.

- Vendor independence : We, as a community, can NOT depend on a single vendor or group of vendors for the future of MEDICAL (or any free software solution for that matter). MEDICAL does not belong to Thymbra. MEDICAL is part of a non-for-profit organization, GNU Solidario, which can not be bought or fall into speculators hands. MEDICAL is a public good.

- Back to the roots : We need to get back to the origins of Free Software. As I said, this is not about only "open source", but about community and ethics.

I believe that today we have the perfect scenario of freedom of choice, vendor independence, no lock-in policies of any type, community and evolution. These factors guarantee the sustainability of MEDICAL for the current and all the next installations around the world.

We will of course keep on developing MEDICAL so it will have the same functionality in all the environments (OpenERP, Tryton, GNU/Linux, FreeBSD...).

Today is a great day for MEDICAL and for Free Software.

About Medical

Medical is a free (GPL license), centralized Health and Hospital Information System that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

Medical is part of GNU Solidario ( http://gnusolidario.org/en ) . GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health solutions with free software.

Main site : http://medical.sf.net

Governments hosting Medical through their portals :

European Commission (EU) , OSOR : http://medical.forge.osor.eu

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB) : http://www.softwarepublico.gov.br/dotlrn/clubs/medicalbr

Pediatric Symptoms Checklist - PSC - in MEDICAL

2011-05-08T21:01:00.000-03:00

MEDICAL, the Free Health and Hospital Information System has incorporated the PSC to its latest development branch.
The Pediatric Symptoms Checklist - PSC - has been developed by Dr. Michael Jellinek and Dr. Michael Murphy from the Massachusetts General Hospital.

The authors define the PSC as "a brief screening questionnaire that is used by pediatricians and other health professionals to improve the recognition and treatment of psychosocial problems in children"

PSC patient section in MEDICAL

MEDICAL uses the standard PSC form - to be completed by the parents - and will include the Y-PSC.

MEDICAL automatically calculates the total PSC score, based upon form values. It also highlights the evaluations that might indicate a child psychosocial impairment.

The PSC cutoff values will be localized to the different countries (Japan, Germany, Holland ...), so it will fit their recommended cutoffs.

Sample data of PSC in MEDICAL

I want to thank Drs. Michael Jellinek and Michael Murphy for developing PCS, as well as Sandra Bishop, PhD and María Pagano, PhD from further investigating and working on this great system. I specially thank them for making it a free resource, for the well-being of all the childrens around the world. If you use the PSC functionality of MEDICAL in your health center, please send them a note !

Thank you
Luis Falcón
lfalcon@gnusolidario.org

About Medical

Medical is a free (GPL license), centralized Health and Hospital Information System for OpenERP that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

Medical is part of GNU Solidario ( http://gnusolidario.org/en ) . GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health solutions with free software.

Main site : http://medical.sf.net

Governments hosting Medical through their portals :

European Commission (EU) , OSOR : http://medical.forge.osor.eu

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB) : http://www.softwarepublico.gov.br/dotlrn/clubs/medicalbr

MEDICAL : Enhanced Neonatology and Newborn Identification

2011-04-30T19:56:00.000-03:00

Dear all :

This is a sneak preview of what's going on in the development of MEDICAL

There is a new module for pediatrics, which will cover the existing neonatology and all the other pediatric information.

Newborn wristbands
To maximize security and identification of the newborn, MEDICAL assigns a newborn ID, and allows to print the four identification bands to place it on the baby and mother's wrists and ankles.

Newborn barcoded wristband created by MEDICAL

The identification band will have a unique barcode that can be checked by the institution security personnel at anytime.

New Pediatrics Module and enhanced Neonatology information

The new pediatrics module will cover the neonatal , infancy, toddler and teenage information.

The neonatology process has been extensively revised, with many new indicators and functionality, such as :

Multiple APGAR tests
Automatic APGAR score
Newborn reflexes,
Improved sign and symptoms
New newborn tests

The antenatal information and the puerperium remains in the gynecology / obstetrics module.

You can check the new functionality in the development version. Please test it and let us know your suggestions !

About Medical

Medical is a free (GPL license), centralized Health and Hospital Information System for OpenERP that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

Medical is part of GNU Solidario ( http://gnusolidario.org/en ) . GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health solutions with free software.

Main site : http://medical.sf.net

Governments hosting Medical through their portals :

European Commission (EU) , OSOR : http://medical.forge.osor.eu

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB) : http://www.softwarepublico.gov.br/dotlrn/clubs/medicalbr

Thymbra OpenERP academia .- May 2011

2011-04-11T21:49:00.000-03:00

I'm happy to announce the upcoming OpenERP academia taking place in Buenos Aires, May 2nd-6th.

Get the best from the first OpenERP partner in LatinAmerica.

En Español : http://www.thymbra.com/es/training/training_cursos_openerp.html

Thymbra and Tiny SPRL (Now OpenERP) created in 2007 the OpenERP LatinAmerica Academy in order to satisfy the local market demand.

This makes Thymbra the first OpenERP official education partner. In the Academy we give the same material (technical and functional courses) as in Belgium, but localized both in the language and market specifications for Latin America.

Experience tells us that places are taken shortly after announcing our academia, so please make sure you get your seat by writing to academia@thymbra.com

Looking forward to meeting you in Buenos Aires !

For more information, please check the following links

http://www.thymbra.com/en/training/training.html

En Español : http://www.thymbra.com/es/training/training_cursos_openerp.html

Thymbra acquires Open Unit

2011-03-20T19:59:00.000-03:00

Thymbra has acquired Open Unit Solutions, a company specialized in Free Software. This acquisition positions Thymbra as the company leader in Free Software consulting in Latin America.

Thymbra is the first OpenERP partner in Latin America. Since 2005, we are official OpenERP Gold Partners.

We have developed the Argentinian Localization, the logon manager and the Electronic Invoicing module, among others.

Thymbra is pioneer in Free Software development for Health Informatics, such as MEDICAL

Thymbra has since 2007 the OpenERP LatinAmerica Academia, so your company can get the best OpenERP functional and technical training. Please contact us at academia@thymbra.com to get information about the next training in your area.

Please contact us if you need information of our training session on OpenERP or MEDICAL, or if you want to implement it in your company or Health Center.

About Thymbra

Thymbra is an IT company specialized in ERP (OpenERP and SAP) administration and Health Informatics. Our goal is to maximize the performance, security and availability for your Enterprise. Our offices are in Spain and Argentina, with clients in Europe and the Americas.

We have two business divisions: Medical Informatics and ERP consulting. ERP services include the implementation, upgrade, migration and administration of OpenERP and SAP. Thymbra has years of experience in the SAP administration and clients all over Europe and Latin America.

Our Medical Informatics division develops open source solutions for doctors, institutions, NGOs and country health services. We make special emphasis on helping out developing countries in improving their population health campaigns, epidemiology studies and socio-economics of their people. Proper health care must be universal for everyone of us, no matter where we live.

Thymbra has been committed with Free Software since its beginning. In 1999 Thymbra made the first SAP installation on GNU/Linux in Latin America and today is leader in number of installations in this environment.

Thymbra is OpenERP first partner in Latin America, since 2005. We work on the localization of the ERP / CRM / BI for Latin America.

The United Nations University chooses MEDICAL

2011-01-21T08:07:00.000-03:00

The United Nations University (UNU) has adopted MEDICAL

United Nations University - International Institute for Global Health (IIGH) ( http://www.unu.edu ) has joined the MEDICAL community. MEDICAL will offer them an online teaching resource for a Hospital Information System (HIS).

GNU Solidario and UNU are now working together in specific areas, such as the documentation process. GNU Solidario will also work with UNU in the installation of a demo server.

This is yet another great example of how free software can leverage the resources to help the developing countries. Many thanks to Mr Nurhizam Safie Mohd Satar who is leading the MEDICAL integration project at the United Nations University - International Institute for Global Health (IIGH).

This common effort will increase the amount of physicians using Free Software, and we will all benefit with their valuable feedback.

I take the opportunity to thank the United Nations and their Development Program - UNDP - ( http://www.undp.org) , since it's been supporting our mission since 2009. Mr Raul Zambrano, Senior Policy Advisor on ICT and Governance for the UNDP, was one of the lecturers at IWEEE (http://www.iweee.org) 2010 in Las Palmas.

About the United Nations University :

The UN University is dedicated to the generation and transfer of knowledge, and the strengthening of individual and institutional capacities in furtherance of the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

The mission of UN University is to contribute, through collaborative research, capacity development, and advisory services to efforts to resolve the pressing global problems of human survival, development and welfare that are the concern of the United Nations, its Peoples and Member States.

About Medical

Medical is a free (GPL license), centralized Health and Hospital Information System for OpenERP that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

Medical is part of GNU Solidario ( http://gnusolidario.org/en ) . GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health solutions with free software.

Main site : http://medical.sf.net

Governments hosting Medical through their portals :

European Commission (EU) , OSOR : http://medical.forge.osor.eu

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB) : http://www.softwarepublico.gov.br/dotlrn/clubs/medicalbr

The Academic Hospital Paramaribo chooses Medical

2010-12-08T17:08:00.000-03:00

The Academic Hospital Paramaribo (AZP) is the largest and most modern hospital in Suriname.

The AZP was founded march 9, 1966 as a central hospital and was changed into the Academic Hospital Paramaribo in 1969 gaining its university status. The current staff consists of about 1700 co-workers. The AZP Hospital has a 470 bed capacity.

On a yearly basis 20.000 patients are hospitalized, while about 176.0000 out-patients visit the hospital.

We greatly appreciate AZP commitment to Medical and support to our organization, GNU Solidario. We are working with AZP to initially provide specific functionality in pediatric care and cardiology. This is a clear example on how large hospitals can collaborate to Free software, where the rest of the world will also benefit.

About Medical

Medical is a free (GPL license), centralized Health and Hospital Information System for OpenERP that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

Medical is part of GNU Solidario ( http://gnusolidario.org/en ) . GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health solutions with free software.

Main site : http://medical.sf.net

Governments hosting Medical through their portals :

European Commission (EU) , OSOR : http://medical.forge.osor.eu

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB) : http://www.softwarepublico.gov.br/dotlrn/clubs/medicalbr

Hospitals in Indonesia are using Medical, the Free Health and Hospital Information System

2010-11-09T23:12:00.000-03:00

R.S. Griya Husada Madiun Hospital, in Madiun City (Province East Java Indonesia) is the latest hospital in Indonesia that have adopted Medical , the Free Health and Hospital Information System.

This is the third hospital in Indonesia in this year that installs Medical.

It's very rewarding to know that many health centers around the globe are using Free Software for the sake of their habitants.

Thanks to Riza Kurniawan, part of the team of Medical in Indonesia, who has implemented in this hospital, and just translated the homepage to Bahasa Indonesia.

You can see this and other implementations on http://medical.sf.net/community.html

About Medical

Medical is a free (GPL license), centralized Health and Hospital Information System for OpenERP that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

Medical is part of GNU Solidario ( http://gnusolidario.org/en ) . GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health solutions with free software.

Main site : http://medical.sf.net

Governments hosting Medical through their portals :

European Commission (EU) , OSOR : http://medical.forge.osor.eu

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB) : http://www.softwarepublico.gov.br/dotlrn/clubs/medicalbr

Medical 1.0 RC1 Released

2010-11-07T21:02:00.000-03:00

Medical 1.0 RC1 released !

I'm happy to announce the first Release Candidate version Medical. This version is the result of over 2 years of hard work, and I see it as the starting point for a modern, scalable Free Health and Hospital Information System.

The highlights are :

Covers most important functionality of Preventive and Family Medicine
Fully Integrated to OpenERP 6.0
Health Center administration (human resources, financial , stock, billing, ... )
Socioeconomics : Living conditions, sewers, drinking water, economic income, family members,electricity ...
Lifestyle : Exercise, hours of work, diet, sleep hours, smoking....
Sexual education and habits
Social exclusion and drug abuse indicators : Working children, sexual abuse, prostitution, teenage pregnancy, school withdrawal, ...
Includes commonly used illegal drugs, by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) and their rating, addiction and tolerance, toxicity, etc...
Laboratory Administration
Prescription writing
Patient appointment Administration (both ambulatory and inpatient)
Inpatient (Hospitalization) Management
Vademecum : Includes the World Health Organization (WHO) essential list of medicines.
Genetic and Hereditary diseases. ( Over 4200 NCBI and Diseases genes )
Includes International Classification of Diseases, version 10, as well as the ICD-10-PCS ( Procedure Coding System )
Demographics, epidemiology and other statistical reports

The 1.0 release should be out in December, and in between we will have at least 2 more Release Canditates (RC2 and RC3).

The Release Candidate period is for :

- Test the system and fix critical bugs

- Fully document the current functionality and

- Complete the translation to the many languages that Medical supports.

- Add more demo data to ease the learning curve

Many thanks to all the Medical community that have contributed to the creation of the universal free Health Information System !

Luis Falcón

GNU Solidario

About Medical

Medical is a free (GPL license), centralized Health and Hospital Information System for OpenERP that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

Medical is part of GNU Solidario ( http://gnusolidario.org/en ) . GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health solutions with free software.

Main site : http://medical.sf.net

Governments hosting Medical through their portals :

European Commission (EU) , OSOR : http://medical.forge.osor.eu

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB) : http://www.softwarepublico.gov.br/dotlrn/clubs/medicalbr

GNU Solidario, Medical and Debian GNU/Linux

2010-10-24T23:34:00.000-03:00

Before the end of the year we will witness three major milestones :

Medical 1.0
OpenERP 6.0
Debian GNU/Linux 6.0

In this blog I write about the importance of Debian in our organization, GNU Solidario.

We, GNU Solidario, have been using Debian GNU/Linux for many years, not only in our installations, but in our implementations, as well as mirroring the repositories for Argentina.

Medical in Debian GNU/Linux 6 (Squeeze)

Primary school children installing Debian in rural school

This entry is a tribute to the Debian community, which has been always at the heart of Free Software, and today is the source for many linux distributions (including Ubuntu).
Here are some pictures when we installed some years ago Debian GNU/Linux in two rural schools in Santiago del Estero.

Thanks to Debian for all these years of contribution to the community, as a truly Free Operating System.
If you are about to get into GNU/Linux, try Debian, it's very stable; has a great community and it's truly free ! Visit http://www.debian.org

About Medical

Medical is a free (GPL license), centralized Health and Hospital Information System for OpenERP that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

Medical is part of GNU Solidario ( http://gnusolidario.org/en ) . GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health solutions with free software.

Main site : http://medical.sf.net

Governments hosting Medical through their portals :

European Commission (EU) , OSOR : http://medical.forge.osor.eu

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB) : http://www.softwarepublico.gov.br/dotlrn/clubs/medicalbr

Enhanced functionality on drug abuse in Medical

2010-10-14T03:28:00.000-03:00

I'm happy to announce the enhanced functionality for drug addictions surveillance and control under Medical.

The main points are :

NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) categorization, descriptions and effects of most important recreational drugs
Administration routes
Commercial and street names
Dr. Henningfield's drug rating / score on :

Withdrawal
Reinforcement
Tolerance
Dependence
Intoxication

Additional fields to rank the toxicity and addiction levels of the drug
Special indicator for Intravenous (IV) users

In addition, new lifestyle All these extra indicators and functionality will help the health professional to better In addition, I have enhanced the tobacco and alcohol sections, with extra input fields.

The information will help the health professional and social workers to improve the prevention and treatment of the patient, as well as to have better epidemiological information on the prevalence and incidence of different addictions.

About Medical

Medical is a free (GPL license), centralized Health and Hospital Information System for OpenERP that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

European Commission (EU) , OSOR : http://medical.forge.osor.eu

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB) : http://www.softwarepublico.gov.br/dotlrn/clubs/medicalbr

El centro de salud Doctor Oñativia en Argentina instala Medical

2010-10-14T02:03:00.000-03:00

Sistema Medical - Centro Regional de Referencia Doctor Oñativia (Corrales)

A continuación les copio un correo de Mario Puntin sobre la instalación de Medical que se realizó en el centro de Salud regional. Enhorabuena !
--

El equipo del centro de salud Dr. Oñativia

El proyecto involucra:

Un sistema informático desarrollado a medida del proceso,
El desarrollo de la cultura informática del personal del centro de salud,
La creación de la red de computadoras necesarias e instalación del servidor del sistema

Para el primer item se procedió a contratar a un proveedor de desarrollo informático, que propuso el software de gestión en salud MEDICAL.

Este sistema en su conjunto está basado en software libre. por lo que se provee al Centro un sistema libre de patentes o licencias.

La solución creada para el centro permite, entre otras tareas, generar y manipular la información sobre:

Base de datos de pacientes adultos y pediátricos (Plan Nacer, del Ministerio de Salud de la Nación)
Turnos médicos ambulatorios y otros servicios de profesionales del Centro,
Cuadro social perteneciente al paciente, cobertura de salud, datos personales,
Historia clínica por paciente a partir de las prestaciones y diagnósticos,
Estadísticas predeterminadas de prestaciones.

El centro de salud tiene una guardia médica y servicio de ambulancia las 24 hs.
Ofrece atención en medicina clínica, cardiología, ginecología, obstetricia, pediatría, kinesiología, odontología y oftalmología.

También cuenta con una farmacia, un laboratorio, especialistas ecógrafos y nutricionistas. Hay además un Área Social, con psicólogos, psicopedagogos y asistentes sociales.

Centro de Salud Dr. Oñativia, Entre Ríos

Se realizan también otras actividades, como salidas a terreno de algunos especialistas para atender familias o niños en situación de riesgo sanitario.
El centro de salud cuenta con un grupo de más de 90 profesionales.

Como centro de referencia de la zona, atiende las necesidades de una población de más 20000 personas.

Mi enhorabuena a Mario y a todo el equipo del centro Dr. Oñativia, que todos los días trabajan para mejorar la calidad de vida de sus habitantes.

Luis Falcón

Acerca de Medical

Medical es un sistema Gestión Hospitalaria y de Información de salud libre que ofrece las siguientes funciones :

Expediente Médico Electrónico (EMR)
Sistema de Gestión Hospitalaria (HIS)
Sistema de Información de Salud

Medical es parte de GNU Solidario, una ONG que implementa soluciones de Salud y Educación mediante software libre.

Gobiernos con Medical en sus Portales

Brasil : Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB) : http://www.softwarepublico.gov.br/dotlrn/clubs/medicalbr
Comunidad Europea (OSOR) : http://medical.forge.osor.eu

Para más información visite : http://medical.sf.net/es

Release of Medical 0.1.3 and OpenERP v6 integration

2010-10-10T00:25:00.000-03:00

I'm happy to announce the release of Medical 0.1.3, with includes bug fixes and improvements in Patient Hospitalization Management, Laboratory Administration and PoS / Billing, among others.

It all looks like that Medical v1 and OpenERP v6 will come out very closely in dates.

For the last weeks, I've been working on adapting Medical to the upcoming version of OpenERP v6. I have work on the code, the views and the documentation, so I can say now that most of the code is v6 compatible ( including wizards).

Medical 0.1.3 has been released today. From this point on, all the active development (trunk) will be done in OpenERP / OpenObject v6.

The current trunk has been moved to branch openerp5. This will be based in medical 0.1.3 and it's a maintenance version, so bugfixes will be applied to it.

I invite all of you who are actively developing Medical to download the latest OpenERP repository and install Medical on it. Please document the new functionality on the Wiki (http://medical.wiki.sourceforge.net). I already documented the installation process for Medical under OpenERP v6.

This approach is the best way to keep Medical uptodate with the latest OpenERP developments, improvements and functionality. Of course, we will keep the 5x version for people that don't want to migrate at this point.

The new online demo of Medical version , compatible with openerp v6 will be available soon at the GNU Solidario portal. Same user, ports, etc..

About Medical

Medical is a free (GPL license), centralized Health and Hospital Information System for OpenERP that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

European Commission (EU) , OSOR : http://medical.forge.osor.eu

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB) : http://www.softwarepublico.gov.br/dotlrn/clubs/medicalbr

Medical 0.1.2 - Hospitalization (inpatient) management

2010-09-12T23:42:00.000-03:00

In this version of Medical we have added important hospital functionality like the inpatient admission administration.

The module "medical_inpatient" concentrates the main functionality to :

- Make bed reservations
- Check availability
- Graphically manage the hospital or health cernet beds in wards and or rooms.

Medical allows to manage bed assignments for different types of admissions (routine, periodic, maternity, emergencies, ..), for the specific hospital department.

calendar for hospital bed and patient management

In this view, it's easy to look for patient's locations and status in the hospital. The colors visually differentiate the type of admissions.

We have also improve other sections, like vaccinations. Thanks to Andrew Gledhill (NHS) who proposed the addition of the vaccine lot and expiration date. Actually, the vaccine is integrated to the product, so all the production lot, traceability, and procurement is automated. Special controls for vaccine expiration dates have been put in place now.

Finally, this version includes the translation to Vietnamese (thanks to Phong Nguyen) of all the modules !

You can find a detailed description of changes in the Changelog file (http://medical.sf.net/Changelog)

You can download this latest version from Sourceforge of from the European Community Open Source Observatory (OSOR)

Please report any suggestions or issues you find to our mailining lists or bug tracking system.

About Medical

Medical is a free (GPL license), centralized Health and Hospital Information System for OpenERP that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

European Commission (EU) , OSOR : http://medical.forge.osor.eu

Brazil: Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB) : http://www.softwarepublico.gov.br/dotlrn/clubs/medicalbr

LinuxCon 2010 Brazil and Medical

2010-09-03T12:14:00.000-03:00

Just got back from LinuxCon 2010 Brazil, (thank you Linux Foundation for inviting me ! ) where I was the speaker for Medical : Benefits of Implementing a Free Hospital and Health Information System.


Linus Torvalds and Luis Falcón at LinuxCon 2010

The event was great, I got the chance to see again my Brazilian friends, like Corinto Meffe, who is doing a great job on the public software portal. Corinto was the one who included Medical in the community of the Software Publico Brasileiro.

Corinto Meffe (Brazilian government ), Marcelo Moreno (Ginga), Tatiana Al-Chueyr (In-vesalius), Luis Falcón (Medical) and Ricardo Amorim (codecommunity) at LinuxCon 2010 Brasil

I also talked to Linus Torvalds about the GNU Solidario organization, and the countries we are currently working.

I am quite happy with the fact of having LinuxCon in LatinAmerica. This was the first year of the conference in South America and I'm looking forward to see more people and companies of LatinAmerica and Spain next year.

The same group with Francine and Rainer Kruger (Pandorga Linux)

You can find the paper and more pics of the event at the GNU Solidario Site or in the new GNU Solidario social network of at Amazee (http://www.amazee.com/gnusolidario). While you are there, just join the team !

Medical included in the European Community and Brazil Public Software Portals

2010-08-13T09:54:00.000-03:00

Medical (http://medical.sf.net) has been included in the European Commission Open Source Observatory (OSOR).

OSOR is the Free Software portal of the European Community to use in the public administrations.

Now Medical has a local mirror for Europe, with the software as well as local news.

The EU follows the same steps as the Brazilian government, that have included Medical in the Public Software Portal (Portal do Software Publico Brasileiro ), where there is a community (Medical - BR ) dedicated to the Brazilian localization.
Corinto Meffe, IT innovation manager from the Brazilian government, will join me at LinuxCon 2010 Brasil, in the Medical presentation "Benefits of implementing a Free Hospital Information System"

Many thanks to both governments to include Medical in their portals and to work on the inclusion of free software in the Public sector.

More information at :

http://www.osor.eu

http://www.softwarepublico.gov.br

http://medical.forge.osor.eu

About Medical

Medical is a free (GPL license), centralized Health and Hospital Information System for OpenERP that provides the following functionality :

Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
Hospital Information System (HIS)
Health Information System

Medical is part of GNU Solidario ( http://gnusolidario.org/en ) . GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health solutions with free software.

Medical goes Beta !

2010-07-20T22:20:00.000-03:00

I am happy to announce the release of the Beta version of Medical, the award-winning free Health and Hospital Information System.

This beta version represents almost 2 years of work, with a multinational team of scientists, physicians, social workers, biochemists, pharmacists, translators and many others who have contributed their time.

Medical represents a solid alternative to proprietary systems, specially for those living in emerging economies and those helping the underprivileged. It's a free system put on the hand of health professionals and governments to improve the lives of their citizens.

The Beta version highlights are :

Strong focus in family medicine and Primary Health Care
Major interest in Socio-economics (housing conditions, substance abuse, education...)
Diseases and Medical procedures standards (ICD-10 / ICD-10-PCS)
Patient Genetic and Hereditary risks : Over 4200 genes related to diseases (NCBI / Genecards)
Epidemiological and other statistical reports
Prescription writing
Billing
Perinatal and puerperium
Inpatient / Outpatient management
100% paperless patient examination and history taking
Patient Administration
Appointment management
Doctor Administration
Lab Administration
Vademecum
Drugs and medication
Medical stock and supply chain management
Hospital Financial Administration

Medical and / or its homepage has been translated to Bahasa, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese, Polish and Spanish.

We are also working on the new documentation portal, that can be accessed directly from the Medical homepage

You can download and test Medical at sourceforge : http://medical.sf.net

Medical is part of GNU Solidario ( http://gnusolidario.org/en ) . GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health solutions with free software.

We'll be presenting Medical in LinuxCon Brazil 2010, this August. You can check the current and next events here

Thanks
Luis Falcón
GNU Solidario

Medical 0.0.51 : Easy to install, Signs, Symptoms and health promotion

2010-06-20T20:18:00.000-03:00

In this new version of Medical, we have improved the installation; the signs and symptoms in the patient examination; and the functionality on health promotion and disease prevention.

Installation :

Medical 0.0.51 has now a "Medical Center profile" that include the most important functionality modules, so you don't have to install one by one. It will be done automatically during the installation.

This will include the core module, admissions, lifestyle / sexuality, socioeconomics, diseases (ICD-10), laboratory,gynecology and genetics

Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

- Gynecology ( mammography, colposcopy, breast self-examination )
- Home and car safety
- Sexuality ( sexual habits, practices and associated risks )

Signs and Symptoms

The signs and symptoms section on the patient evaluation / physical examination has been extensively revised and improved. Now we count with over 115 signs and symptoms, covering most of the evaluations. This is important not only for the health professional, but also to get good statistical information.

For a detailed log of chages, please visit the Changelog

Medical is a free Health and Hospital Information System, with the goal to provide a universal high quality e-Health environment, specially for countries and provinces with low resources.

As usual, you can download and test Medical at sourceforge : http://medical.sf.net

Please download it and report any bugs and suggestions !

Medical is part of the GNU Solidario project ( http://gnusolidario.org/en ) . GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health solutions with free software.

Release of Medical 0.0.50

2010-06-07T03:13:00.000-03:00

In this version we keep on improving navigation, demo data and reporting.

Since 0.0.50 the patient's diseases (including allergies) will be always visible. A new color schema will differentiate and highlight severe and infectious diseases. The diseases are also ordered by different parameters ( active, disease status, severity, diagnosis date, pregnancy warnings, ... ).

This design optimizes navigation and the focus on the different aspects of the patient, without missing critical information about the patient.

Medical is a free Health and Hospital Information System, with the goal to provide a universal high quality e-Health environment, specially for countries and provinces with low resources.

As usual, you can download and test Medical at sourceforge : http://medical.sf.net

Please download it and report any bugs and suggestions !

Medical is part of the GNU Solidario project ( http://gnusolidario.org/en ) . GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health solutions with free software.

Medical 0.0.49 released !

2010-05-30T21:24:00.000-03:00

In this release we have optimized the navigation, allergy and basic reports.

For a detailed list of modifications, please check http://medical.sourceforge.net/Changelog

Here are a couple of screenshots that show some reporting and the navigation in some areas (medicaments and allergies).

You can see the relationship between what is in the screen and the report generated.

We have also included Panagiotis Kontaxis localization for Greece.

Medical is a free Health and Hospital Information System, with the goal to provide a universal high quality e-Health environment, specially for countries and provinces with low resources.

As usual, you can download and test Medical at sourceforge : http://medical.sf.net

Please download it and report any bugs and suggestions !

Medical is part of the GNU Solidario project ( http://gnusolidario.org/en ) . GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health solutions with free software.

New MEDICAL Demo DB and data

2010-05-08T12:06:00.000-03:00

I just created a new DB with some demo data to test and play with.

This version is based on SVN rev. 87, with the modular design. Most modules have been loaded.

I believe that the best way to test the system is to have a couple of demo Medical Records, with as much information as possible, as well as the institution information.

The basic data includes :

- Female patient
- Diabetes type 1.
- Using an insulin pump
- Allergic to penicillin
- Mother of 2 infants ( G2P2A0). One premature.

- There is one evaluation (Presumptive diagnosis : Acute cystitis)
- One prescription ( Ciprofloxacin )
- One lab test ( urine analysis )
- Health Institution
- Doctor

Other info : Has traveled to malaria endemic area 4 months ago and did not take any anti-malarial prophylaxis.

In this demo instance, please play with the following :

- Hospitalizations
- Family members
- Lifestyle
- Perinatal and puerperium information
- Socioeconomics ( patient occupation, living conditions, ... )
- Surgeries
- Genetic risks and family history
- Other lab tests (eg, CBC)
- Sexuality
- Vaccinations

We should also have demo data for the Hospital Administration (personnel, financials, products, stock, suppliers, pharmacy, ... )

All that info will be used and included in the next version (0.0.49), so we have a case to work on from the start. It's also a good way to check and look for bugs.

Please check the online demo and join the mailing lists were you'll find the access data, and can make questions about the system. If you are not a developer, then you should subscribe to the medical-users mailing list only.

Enjoy and thanks for testing !
Luis Falcon

New Ubuntu mirror for Argentina at Thymbra

2010-05-08T11:06:00.000-03:00

At Thymbra have created a new local Ubuntu local mirror in Argentina.

In our R&D labs (Torre de Hanoi) we are hosting the Debian and Ubuntu repositories. The links are :

Debian : http://debian.torredehanoi.org/debian/

Ubuntu : http://www.torredehanoi.org/ubuntu

Getting ready for Medical 0.0.48

2010-04-18T22:14:00.000-03:00

Medical 0.0.48 will represent a major milestone in the development of the HIS. This new distribution greatly improves the development, localization and scalability of the system. Specific teams can work independently in their disciplines, without affecting the rest. Smaller centers won’t necessarily have to install all the modules, just the ones they need.

We plan to release the 0.0.48 on this Sunday 25th, with most of the translations in place. Developers can get it from the SVN repository.

I have updated the SVN repository, with the new medical schema. The “monolithic” main module has been divided now into the following. There are many that we are working on ( like epidemiology and reporting ) that will be included also shortly.

medical : Core module. It contains the main objects, such as patient, disease, physicians, evaluations, ethnic groups, hospitals and their infrastructure, admissions, families, operational areas and sectors, medicaments and medications, administration routes and appointment administration.

medical_genetics : It contains all the objects and functionality relevant to family history and genetic disorders. Over 4200 genes associated to diseases.

medical_gyneco : Gynecological and obstetric info. Pregnancy, perinatal, birth, postpartum and puerperium information, monitors and history

medical_socioeconomics : Living conditions, Educational level, Infrastructure (electricity, sewers, drinking water …), Family affection ( APGAR ), Drug addiction, Hostile environment, Teenage Pregnancy, Working children, ….

medical_surgery : Module specific for surgery medical discipline. It also holds the patient surgeries history. It can work with ICD10-PCS module for the Procedures Codes.

medical_icd10pcs : Procedure Coding System for Medical ICD-10-PCS. It’s a standard that represents the successor of ICD-9-CM for medical procedures (surgical and others ).

medical_icd10 : World Health Organization – International Classification of Diseases for MEDICAL – 10th revision. You can use this standard for the pathology coding. Medical uses a coding system such there is no mistake in the typing or interpretation of the diagnosis.

medical_lifestyle : Gathers information about the habits and sexuality of the patient. For example, eating habits, drinking, drug addictions, sexuality and sexual education, physical activity, …

medical_lab : Will hold the functionality for clinical tests and the interfaces with industry clinical devices

medical_ : These modules will hold the localization effort for different countries ( such as medical_gr for Greece, medical_br for Brazil or medical_es for Spain ). will be the two letter country ISO code. We should not confuse this with the translation. Each module will have a i18n directory that will hold all the translations for different languages.

Thanks
Luis Falcón

New Modular Design for Medical

2010-04-15T23:21:00.000-03:00

New Modular Design for Medical

Dear MEDICAL team

Since next development version (0.0.48), Medical will be more modular.
The new design will have the following advantages :

Dedicate teams to specific functionality ( localization, medical specialties, socioeconomics, epidemiology …. )
Development process speedup
Easier and faster installation
Ability to install only the required functionality

Please make sure you test it and send us feedback.

Thanks again to all of you who are making Medical the Universal Free Hospital Information System !

Luis Falcón

Medical 0.0.47 released - Patient Hospitalization

2010-03-28T16:42:00.000-03:00

Hi all !

I'm happy to announce the release of the development version 0.0.47

This version includes the basic inpatient (hospitalization), and outpatient functionality.

We also have created the main objects that make up the hospital infrastructure (buildings, units, floors, wards, beds ... ).

Medical is a free Health and Hospital Information System, with the goal to provide a universal high quality e-Health environment, specially for countries and provinces with low resources.

Medical has been awarded the project of the month at sourceforge, and was finalist for best project for government in 2009.

As usual, you can download and test Medical at sourceforge : http://medical.sf.net

Please download it and report any bugs and suggestions !

Medical is part of the GNU Solidario project . GNU Solidario is a NGO that delivers education and health solutions with free software.

Thanks
Luis Falcón

Biomed chooses Thymbra to implement OpenERP

2009-12-07T18:24:00.000-03:00

Biomed Brokers, a company specialized in medical and laboratory equipment, has chosen Thymbra as their partner fot the OpenERP implementation.

The implementation consist in the migration of their current data to OpenERP, using all the functionality ( sales, purchase, stock, accounting, MRP, ... ).

Biomed will be using Thymbra hosting facilities and the SaaS services, so they won't have to worry about the administration or maintenance of their OpenERP infraestructure and hardware.

Richard Stallman and Medical at IWEEE 2010

2009-10-30T01:14:00.000-03:00

We are very happy to have Richard Stallman at IWEEE 2010, the International Workshop on e-Health in Emerging Economies.

Richard will be at the same event where we will presenting Medical, the Universal Hospital and Health Information System. IWEEE brings together the main stakeholders (NGOs, Church, Academy, Multilateral organizations, Government and Industry ) to discuss the situation in developing countries and come to possible solutions. We will be promoting free software (like Medical ) to make a change in the lives of the people, doctors and institutions in emerging economies.

No doubt that Richard Stallman is one of the most important and influential people in the history of Free Software. He has developed tools that we've been using for decades, such as the excellent GCC ( GNU Compiler Collection , at the beginning, the GNU C Compiler).

But Richard Stallman is way more than that. He created the GNU Operating System, that together with the Linux kernel is in all GNU/Linux variants ; he created the GPL license, and most importantly, he has been figthing for decades for free software, making it a reality today, when not that long ago it was utopia.

There is no doubt on my mind that Richard Stallman will be a key player to help us who are working to introduce the free software philosophy to the healthcare industry. Health MUST be universal, and so should be the software that takes care of the patients. Free software in healthcare is a right that every doctor, hospital and patient should have access.

We are looking forward to sharing with Richard his experiences, views and opinions on how to keep introducing Free Software in the healthcare and schools in the developing world.

More info at : http://www.iweee.org

Luis Falcón
GNU Solidario Project

Peerless Hospital in Nigeria chooses Medical

2009-10-02T11:36:00.000-03:00

Dear all

We are very happy to announce that Peerless Hospital in Nigeria has chosen Medical for their institution.

I have been contacted by Mr. Agu Chibueze who told me their decision of using Medical to implement their Hospital Information System, as part of the African Health Network.

This non-profit effort is part of the GNU Solidario project, who delivers education and hea lth to emerging economies with free software.

This is part of the team in Nigeria:

Agu Chibueze (Computer Scientist)
Emmanuel Akpo (Medical Doctor, Surgeon)
Chibuike Ugwuoke (Computer Professional)

This is a very challenging project in which we will put all our effort to deliver a system that will optimize their healthcare. We already set up a development server and are working on a daily basis with the Nigerian team.

Many thanks to Agu, Dr. Emmanuel, Chibuike and the Peerless Hospital for their great mission on helping out the people of Nigeria, and for trusting Medical and GNU Solidario.

Here is a letter from Agu Chibueze about the African Health Network that I want to share with you :

THE AFRICAN HEALTH NETWORK

The African Health Network is a new organization with the primary aim of centralizing Electronic Medical Records within Sub-Saharan Africa. The African Health Network plans to achieve this using strictly open source tools. AHN has chosen OpenERP from Tiny and Axelor as their framework of choice and the medical module from Thymbra.

Currently, online healthcare is far beyond the reach of the common African. While the project is expected to be self-financing, AHN has chosen open standards to bring affordable online healthcare to even the poorest of people within the region. The African Health Network hopes to start its operations by the middle of this month. There are three people central to this project, a doctor and two computer professionals. AHN will be starting out with Peerless Hospital and Wellness in Warri, Delta State, Nigeria as the first member hospital and the Global Medical Missions as the first member health organization.

The AHN project is the first of its kind within the region and is bound to face challenges ranging from poor internet connectivity within the region to a low level of computer literacy amongst health professionals. AHN, however has been working out collaborative relationships between Internet service providers and is planning for an effective computer training program for future members of the online network.

CIE-10 for Medical

2009-09-19T23:35:00.000-03:00

For the spanish speaking friends, we have the CIE-10 (spanish version of ICD-10) available since version 0.0.41 of Medical !
So, at this time, users can choose not only the login language (English, French, German, Spanish, Indonesian .. ) but also the whole WHO / OMS disease list and categories in other languages.

We will be talking about medical at the eHealth 2009 conference, ( http://www.electronic-health.org) this week (Istambul, Turkey, September 23-25th )

Versión CIE-10 en castellano

You can get the latest information from Medical at :

http://medical.sf.net

Remember that Medical is part of the GNU solidario Project, a non-profit effort to deliver education and health to the most needed.

Regards
Luis Falcon

Medical : Sourceforge Project of the Month

2009-09-01T17:35:00.000-03:00

Hello there !

Medical, the universal Health and Hospital Information System, has been chosen as Sourceforge's project of the month.

We are very happy to see the momentum that Medical has gained in this year of life. It's very interesting and indeed very rewarding.

We'll be showing the project during September 23rd - 25th in Istambul, Turkey (www.electronic-health.org) and during Octuber 22nd-24th in Foz de Iguazu, Brazil (www.latinoware.org), so I'll be more than happy to talk to you in person.

Thanks you to all of you who contribute to the project. If you want to participate in the project ( interfaces, documentation, translations, ... ) will be more than happy to count with your support.

Remember that Medical is part of the GNU solidario project, a non-profit effort to provide Health and Education to emerging economies.

You can check the whole article at :
http://sourceforge.net/community/potm-200909/

Please let me know any comments or suggestions at medical@thymbra.com

Project homepage : http://medical.sourceforge.net

Thanks
Luis Falcón

Medical 0.0.35 and GNU solidario

2009-08-18T21:29:00.000-03:00

Hi there !

I just published medical 0.0.35 in sourceforge. It has many changes and improvements.

- Redesign on the disease note and history forms
- New section on Genetic risks and prevention of vertical transmissions.
- New section on Perinatal and puerperium

You are urged to switch to this version. If you haven't upgraded to OpenERP 5.0.2, do so before installing Medical, because it's __way__ faster than the previous version.

You can download it from http://sourceforge.net/projects/medical/

Please check it out and test it as much as you can. Then file all the bugs and feedback on sourceforge.

Medical is part of the GNU solidario project (www.gnusolidario.org). GNU solidario - previously called Linux Solidario - is a non-profit project with the goal of improving the quality of life of the people in developing countries with free software.

If you want to contribute to the project with ideas, coming up with a nice gnu logo that represent the project, etc..., please let us know !

Thanks
Luis

Medical 0.0.34 . It's all about standards

2009-07-10T07:33:00.000-03:00

Medical: The Universal Health and Hospital Information System

Hello there

Medical version 0.0.34 has just been released !

The most important feature of this version is the addition of ICD-10-PCS.
The International Classification of Diseases tenth revision Procedure Coding System (ICD-10-PCS) will complement the already implemented ICD-10 coding for pathologies. This duple provides a very efficient way of coding for doctors and administrative personnel, making the data interchange between organizations very easy and with a common language, around the world.

In this version of Medical we have the 2009 ICD-10-PCS version, which contains 72589 medical procedures, from surgery to substance administration and monitoring. ICD-10-PCS is the replacement for ICD-9-CM.

In this way, Medical is pioneer by having already the two standard for diagnosis (ICD-10) and procedures (ICD-10-PCS) that are to be adopted by most institutions in the coming years.

This version also has major improvements in dealing with the queries of large tables, modifications on the surgery and patient evaluation and some bug fixes. Check the Changelog for all the modifications.

Check the wiki for the installation instructions at http://medical.wiki.sourceforge.net/

Please file bugs and comments at the sourceforge portal (http://medical.sf.net).

Thanks
Luis Falcon

PS: This version is considerably bigger than the previous ones, so give some time to the database import process :)

Thoughts about H1N1, cytokine storm and public health decisions

2009-07-09T19:15:00.000-03:00

Since the first fatalities related to H1N1 that affected young, healthy people, the cytokine storm theory was raised. And it makes sense. In many cases, after a couple of days, patients would develop severe pneumonia and die in a very short period of time.

The cytokine storm is a over-reaction of the immune system when trying to attack the invader ( in this case, the influenza virus ). The hiper-cytokinemia triggers a positive feedback vicious cycle, releasing a huge amount of pro-inflammatory messengers (Tumor Necrosis Factor - TNF -, and other Interleukins ).

These messengers signal leukocytes ( T-cells, neutrophils... ) to go to the site of infection. Since there is a over-reaction, the white cells action produce damage in the area of action. In the case of the H1N1, in the lung parenchyma.

Now, with several months that H1N1 is among us, and with the experience of the H5N1 (avian flu), in which cytokine storm was the cause of most deaths, my questions are :

- Do we have conclusive evidence (histo-pathological, serum TNF levels, ... ) that confirm a cytokine storm in some of the H1N1 patients ?

- Antivirals : They work by inhibiting the virus replication process, so they don't boost an immune reaction (which is good in this case).

Why don't give antivirals as a prophylactic measure ? This would minimize the initial immune reaction, and thus, prevent or minimize the possibility of the cytokine storm.

We also know that antivirals work best within the first 24 / 48 hours of symptoms. The idea is to avoid pneumonia in the first place. Medicine is about promotion and prevention, so we should avoid at all costs H1N1 complications. What I see is that in many cases, they wait until there is a serious condition related to the flu to start medicating. It just seems too bad-to-late to me...

- Government Improvisations : I feel like there is a lot of improvisation on the way that certain governments are dealing with this issue. In my personal experience, a couple of days ago my daughter got sick, with fever, sore throat and was negative to the strep test (was viral). When I knew that she was negative for strep, I asked for the antivirals and it was denied, since she was not part of the "risk group". This of course is not to blame the doctor, but the health officials.

I'm saying this because the same health officials were giving antivirals to everyone that had flu symptoms and, as a prophylactic measure, to their relatives. That was, in my opinion, the right way to go. Unfortunately, that decision lasted only for two days.

So, I had to spend these last two days in a paranoid state checking on my daughter evolution and hoping that it won't spread to his younger brother.

Why do I have the feeling that high government officials and their kids have the antiviral sitting close to them "just in case"... Anyways... better leave it here...

It would be great if any of you want to make comments or have extra information and shed some light on this subject.

Thanks
Luis Falcon

Latin America gains momentum in Open Source

2009-07-08T18:18:00.001-03:00

Great news for all of us open source activists in Latin America.

This year we have three projects "hechos en latinoamérica" that are finalist in sourceforge : Medical (Best Project for Government), Elastix (Best Project for the Enterprise) and Process Maker (Best Commercial Open Source and Best Visual Design)

I want to thank the community and, specially, the organizations like Free Software Foundation (FSF), and great guys like Jon "Maddog" Hall, who have been key for the adoption of the Open Source in Latin America (and worldwide).

Here is a picture from Debconf 2008 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I met with Jon and talked about the Medical project.

Medical is finalist in 2009 Sourceforge Community Awards

2009-06-23T23:41:00.000-03:00

I'm very pleased to announce that Medical, the universal Health Information System, is finalist on Sourceforge 2009 Community Awards.

With over 47,000 nominations, the community has chosen 85 finalists in 12 categories. Medical is among the best 10 projects this year for government.

This is very exciting and rewarding. To be among the 10 best projects (sharing the space with projects like Open Office) shows the recognition from the community to humanitarian projects like Medical, and positions open source in health sector, an area limited to proprietary vendors until now.

I would like to extend my gratitude to all the scientists and doctors that are working on the project (from Argentina, Belgium, India, Indonesia, Germany, USA, Uruguay... ) and to all of you who have trust our project by using it, voting it or letting others know that such project exists.

We have a couple of weeks now to make the choice for the winner, so please go to and vote for Medical in the Best project for Government.

vote now

Thanks again and congratulations to all of you that made this happen. We'll see you at OSCON 2009 (San Jose, California, July 20-24 ) !
Luis Falcon

About Medical

Medical is an open source project with the goal of providing a universal Health Information System, where health professionals and institutions around the world can benefit from it, independently of their economic status.

Medical optimizes collaboration among health professionals, makin emphasis in Primary Care and Family medicine. It makes use of industry standards (ICD-10), which proportionante the basis for epidemiological studies.

Medical has been designed with scalability in mind. It can deal with millions of patients. Any country or NGO can evaluate their habitants conditions, both from the clinical and the socio-economic / sanitary point of view. This helps to early detect hot-spots, disease vectors and epidemics, specially in developing countries.

Doctors, nurses, computer scientist and sociologist from countries like Argentina, Germany, Uruguay, Spain, Belgium, France, United States, India or Indonesia are actively working together to make medical a reference point in medical informatics.

More Info : http://www.thymbra.com/en/solutions/health

Medical Project at Sourceforge : http://medical.sourceforge.net

Medical presentation in Uganda

2009-05-17T09:25:00.000-03:00

I just got back from Kampala. I must say it was a great experience.

The congress ( IST-Africa ) was a success and it gave the chance to meet and network with wonderful people (NGOs, doctors, students, ... ). Let's not forget that the main point of these type of events is to help out and work together with the emerging communities and countries. At least that's what it should be.

That being said, the presentation of Medical HIS and EMR, had very good comments. We explained the way we are implementing on rural Argentina. We are now in contact with local doctors from Africa and they are willing to work on the localisation of Medical for different countries in that continent.

Many health professionals told me how useful Medical would be for epidemiology studies on HIV / AIDS. The strong focus on the family medicine and socioeconomics, together with the use of industry standards (such as ICD-10) and its scalability makes Medical a perfect solution for epidemiology studies with large amount of data.

Version 0.0.33 has just been released, with the appointment manager, a great way of visually displaying the appointments for different doctors, specialties and institutions.

Please checkout the Medical homepage on sourceforge http://medical.sourceforge.net for the latest news.

If you are interested in collaborating in the project for your country or NGO, please drop us a line to medical@thymbra.com

Thanks
Luis

Medical in IST-Africa 2009

2009-02-25T14:09:00.001-02:00

Medical keeps growing and that is definitely good news :)

I just got back from the north of Argentina, where we are working in the implementation of Medical in a Primary Care Center.

The implementation of Medical in the Primary Care Center will optimize the team work among doctors, administrative workers and health promotion agents. It's a major project that will translate in a fully operational Hospital Information System. The implementation will not only cover the clinical and socioeconomics data for the patient and families, but all the processes within a hospital (Human Resources, accounting, Supply Chain Management, dashboards, ...).

The collected information will be very useful for the health authorities in making effective epidemiological studies and health campaigns, identifying the risk groups in real time and taking proactive measures. There will be a very substantial savings on the medicaments and other goods, since the ordering policies will be automatic.

On this context, I have been invited to participate in IST-Africa 2009 (www.ist-africa.org), that will take place in Kampala, Uganda this May. I am very happy to assist and to be able to talk about the experience of the Medical Project: Implementing an Open Source Hospital Information System (HIS) in rural Argentina.

This project involves a great deal of commitment from a multi-disciplinary team (doctor, nurses, social workers, universities, government health authorities,... ), but I'm convinced that the results are worthed the effort.

I am confident that Medical will translate into a much more efficient way of dealing with public health, and that society will benefit immediately from it.

If you are part of a public health authority, an NGO member and want to contribute or know more about the project, and how could be of help in your region, please don't hesitate to contact me.

The main project page is at sourceforge : http://medical.sourceforge.net

Thanks
Luis

Medical : Getting ready for OpenERP 5.0

2008-11-16T19:38:00.001-02:00

Hi there !

We just released the development version 0.0.22 of Medical, the health module for OpenERP.

This version is coded with 5.0 in mind (It won't work in 4.x ). You can check it with the latest 5.0 snapshot or with the alpha version.

This version includes new functionality, taking into consideration aspects of family medicine, and Primary Care, such as :

- Patient SES (Socioeconomic Status) information
- Ethnic groups
- Patient occupation

The data model has been revised and optimized, specially the all the relations involving the patient medical encounters / evaluations.

New fields have been added in the patient medical examination.

You can check the Changelog in the medical homepage :

http://medical.sourceforge.net

If you want to collaborate in the project (testing, translation, documentation), please send us a line at : medical@thymbra.com

Thanks,
Luis Falcón

Módulo de tesorería para OpenERP

2008-11-16T19:23:00.000-02:00

Hola a todos

Hace un par de días publicamos el módulo de tesorería para OpenERP. La funcionalidad es sencilla, y en este momento tiene como objetivo el llevar un registro de los documentos de tesorería (cheques, contado, transferencias, ...).

Este módulo es útil para la gestión de cartera (cobros y pagos), desde el momento que se recibe el documento hasta que se cobra / paga.

El módulo de tesorería está vinculado a los bancos y a los partners. Uno puede visualizar el estado de los diversos documentos desde el menú de gestión financiera o directamente desde la ficha del partner en sí.

Espero que les sea de útil !

Saludos
Luis

Treasury Module

2008-11-14T10:03:00.000-02:00

Hi there

We have just released at Thymbra the treasury module for OpenERP.

The treasury module keeps track of financial documents ( checks, transfers, coupons, cash ). It's linked to the bank and partner objects.

One can check the status of treasury documents from the Financial Accounting section, or from the partner form.

Acerca del Proyecto Medical - EME para OpenERP

2008-10-13T18:26:00.000-03:00

Desde que la semana pasada hiciéramos público el desarrollo de "Medical", hemos recibido muchos emails con preguntas acerca del módulo. Estamos muy contentos con el interés que ha despertado en la comunidad médica !

Esta entrada resume los aspectos principales del módulo :

Medical es un sistema de Expediente Médico Electrónico (EME - EMR ). Tiene gran parte de la funcionalidad para usarse en una oficina privada de un doctor y/o en instituciones de salud.

El objetivo de Medical es lograr una forma de practicar medicina 100% libre de papel.

La funcionalidad principal abarca :

- Administración de Paciente ( creación, historial, seguimiento, citas )
- Administrador de profesional médico
- Gestión de laboratorio (estudios y tests )
- Vademécum
- Gestión de stock y abastecimiento ( incluye medicamentos e insumos médicos)
- Estadísticas sobre poblaciones / patologías / grupos etarios ...
- Administración Financiera (facturación, ... )

El modelo de datos está diseñado para centralizar la información, evitando la duplicación de datos.

Medical optimiza la colaboración y comunicación entre profesionales de la salud. Por ejemplo, un doctor puede pedir un análisis específico para un paciente. Este lo ejecuta el médico patólogo quien lo diagnostica, ingresando el resultado en OpenERP. Ahora el doctor tiene toda la información analítica enlazado a la ficha del paciente.

Medical permite adjuntar documentos a la ficha del pacitente (Radiografías, Biopsias, ...)

Seguridad:
Seguirá los modelos de control de acceso y seguridad de OpenERP 5.0

Localización:
El principal lenguaje será Inglés, pero se podrá traducir fácilmente a otro idioma usando la funcionalidad de traducción de módulos de OpenERP 5.0. La versión en Español existirá de manera concurrente con la de inglés.
Medical usará diferentes unidades de medida (UoMs) para un pais en particular, pero se focaliza en los estándares de la industria.

Colaboración:
En el desarrollo de Medical, trabajamos estrechamente con doctores y profesionales de la salud, quienes nos brindan su experiencia para hacer de Medical el mejor sistema de Expediente Medico Electrónico.
Por supuesto, mientras más retroalimentación tengamos de la comunidad, mucho más completo será el sistema. Le pedimos por favor que nos envíen sus sugerencias a medical@thymbra.com

Disponibilidad:

La versión alpha estará disponible con la próxima versión estable de OpenERP 5.0

Licencia:
"Medical" es código abierto. Está licenciado bajo los términos de GPL (GNU General Public License).

Gracias
Luis Falcón

About Medical - EMR for OpenERP

2008-10-12T19:03:00.000-03:00

Since we published last week the development of Medical, we have received many emails asking us about the module.
We are very happy about the interest of the medical community even at this early stage !

This entry summarizes the main aspects of the module:

Medical is an EMR (Electronic Medical Record) module for OpenERP. It has most of the functionality to run in a doctor's office or institution.

Medical aims to be a 100% paperless way of practicing medicine.

The main functionality covers :

- Patient Administration (creation, history, follow-ups)
- Doctor Administration
- Lab Administration
- Medicine / Drugs information (vademécum)
- Medical stock and supply chain management ( including pharmaceuticals and drugs )
- Demographics and other statistical reports
- Financial Administration (Invoicing, ...).

The data model is designed in such a way that centralizes the information, so no duplication occurs.

On the other hand, medical optimizes collaboration and communication between health professionals. For example, a doctor may request an specific lab test for a patient, this is processed by the pathologist which diagnoses it and inputs the result on the system. The doctor now has all the analysis information linked to the patient chart.

Medical allows to attach documents (X-rays, Biopsy results, ... ) to the Patient chart.

Security :
It will follow the access control and security model of OpenERP 5.0

Internationalization :
The main language will be English, but it can be easily translated to any other language using OpenERP 5.0 module translation. The Spanish version will exist concurrently with the english version.
Medical will also allow different units of measures (UoMs) of an specific country, but it focus on industry standards.

Collaboration:
In the developmen of "medical", we are working side-by-side with doctors, so they provide their real life experience to make "Medical" the best EMR system. Of course, the more feedback and input we get from the medical community, the more complete the system will be, so please send us your suggestions to medical@thymbra.com .

Availability:
An alpha version should be available with the upcoming stable version of OpenERP 5.0

License:
"Medical" is free software. It's licensed under GPL (GNU General Public License)

Thanks
Luis Falcon

Medical - Expediente Médico Electrónico para OpenERP

2008-10-10T00:19:00.000-03:00

En Thymbra estamos orgullosos de anunciar el desarrollo de "medical", un sistema de Expediente Médico Electrónico para OpenERP.

"medical" combina la versatilidad de OpenERP con el concepto Expediente Médico Electrónico (EMR / EME )

El expediente médico electrónico de OpenERP permitirá la centralización de los expedientes / historial médico de cada paciente. De esta manera, un doctor pude acceder a la última información acerca de su paciente, incluyendo radiografías, análisis clínicos, medicaciones, vacunas, alergias, intervenciones quirúrgicas, medicación actual, etc...

El módulo tendrá un Vademécum, que permitirá al doctor ver los medicamentos disponibles de una lista actualizada y aprobada.

Por último, "medical" podrá ser utilizado en hospitales y clínicas. Entre otras cosas, se podrá hacer reservas de habitaciones, facturación, abastecimiento y controlar el inventario.

Por cualquier consulta sobre este módulo, por favor escríbanos a medical@thymbra.com

Medical - Electronic Medical Record for OpenERP

2008-10-09T23:44:00.001-03:00

At Thymbra we are proud to announce the development of an Electronic Medical Record - EMR - for OpenERP.

"medical" combines the versatility of OpenERP with the power of EMR.

Electronic Medical Record is a paperless way of keeping track of all the patients encounters / visits to the doctor. This way, any doctor can have the latest information about a patient, including Rx, allergies, current medications, surgeries, etc...

The medical module will include a Vademecum to update, which will allow the doctor to prescribe a specific medication to the patient from a current list.

Lastly, the medical module can also be used at hospitals and clinics. It will be able to invoice, make room reservations, inventory control, etc...

If you are interested, please send us an email to medical@thymbra.com

Aniversario de la academia de OpenERP en Latinoamérica

2008-10-09T22:53:00.000-03:00

Estamos celebrando el primer aniversario de la academia de Latinoamericana de OpenERP en Thymbra

En este año, en Thymbra hemos tenido personas de todo Latino América. Desde Argentina y Uruguay hasta España, Ecuador y Venezuela.

El número de estudiantes ha crecido de manera exponencial, proporcionalmente al interés de la comunidad Latinoamericana en OpenERP.

Desde que Thymbra empezó su relación de partner con Tiny SPRL Bélgica en el año 2005 (primeros en España y Latinoamérica), el número de implementaciones y de estudiantes no ha parado de aumentar.

Esto ratifica nuestro eslogan :

"Tres décadas de [r]evolución :
GNU (1980s ) -> Linux (1990s) -> OpenERP (2000)"

La academia OpenERP en Latinoamérica es la única que tiene la certificación de Bélgica en España y Latinoamérica.

Por último, muchas gracias a todos los que han confiado los servicios de formación e implementación en Thymbra. Retailers, compañía de servicios, universidades, empresas de manufactura .... esto es sólo el principio.

Thymbra está comprometida en brindar la mejor localización de OpenERP a las compañías de Latinoamérica y España.

Atentamente
Luis Falcón

Latin America OpenERP Academy Anniversary

2008-10-09T21:58:00.000-03:00

We are celebrating the first anniversary of the Thymbra OpenERP Academy in Latin America.

During this year, in Thymbra we have had people from all over Latin America. From Argentina and Uruguay to Spain, Ecuador and Venezuela.

The number of students is growing exponentially, proportionally to the interest and involvement of the Latin America community in OpenERP.

Since we started our partnership with Tiny in 2005, the number implementations and students just keeps growing.

This proves our slogan

"Three decades of [r]evolution :
GNU (1980s ) -> Linux (1990s) -> OpenERP (2000)"

The OpenERP academy in Latin America is the only one who has the certification from Belgium Tiny SPRL in Spain and Latin America.

Last but not least, thank you very much to all of you who have trusted us in the implementations and in the academy. Retailers, service companies, universities, manufacturers.... This is just the beginning ....

Thymbra is committed to bring the best in localization, implementation and educational services to all the companies, in Spain and Latin America.

Regards,
Luis Falcón

Electronic Invoicing in OpenERP

2008-09-26T03:41:00.000-03:00

At Thymbra R+D Labs - Torre de Hanoi - we have developed the Electronic Invoicing module. Even though it has been localised to Argentina, most of the concepts are valid for other countries.

Electronic Invoicing allows us to generate documents (different types of invoices, Credit or Debit notes .. ) without the need of printing them. We save space, time, money and we collaborate with mother nature.

With the OpenERP Electronic Invoicing module we can generate invoice batches automatically. The generated document is processed by the fiscal administration (AFIP in Argentina), which will emit an authorization code (CAE) for each invoice.

Once we have the CAE, we can send a copy (pdf or xml) by mail to the client, or he / she can check it / download it online.

The main steps are :

Invoice generation in OpenERP -> XML / webservice -> CAE -> mail to client

The module be part be part of OpenERP 5.0

Please write to us at openerp@thymbra.com if you have any question about this module.

Facturación Electrónica en OpenERP

2008-09-26T02:19:00.000-03:00

En el laboratorio de I+D de Thymbra - Torre de Hanoi - hemos desarrollado el módulo de Facturación electrónica para OpenERP. Si bien está creado y adaptado a la normativa Argentina, el concepto es similar en otros países.

La facturación electrónica nos permite generar documentos y comprobantes (distintos tipos de facturas, notas de crédito, débito, ...) sin necesidad de imprimirlos. Ahorramos espacio, tiempo, dinero y colaboramos con la naturaleza.

Con el módulo de facturación electrónica de OpenERP podemos generar lotes de facturas de manera automática. Se genera un documento que es procesado por la Administración Federal de Ingresos Públicos (AFIP), la cual nos emite un Código de Autorización Electrónica (CAE), dándole validez legal al documento.

Una vez tenemos el CAE, le podemos enviar al cliente una copia por email la factura, o del lote de facturas. El cliente también puede consultar en línea el estado de su factura, por lo que lo del envío por mail es opcional.

Los pasos principales son :

Generación en OpenERP -> documento XML / webservice -> CAE -> envío email

Si bien al día de hoy es un módulo independiente, es parte de la localización argentina (l10n_ar) que empezamos desde el 2005.

El módulo será parte integral de OpenERP 5.0 .

Escríbenos a openerp@thymbra.com por cualquier consulta que tengas al respecto.