[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: NHS privatisation + IT (was [Sheflug] Computing)
On Mon, Nov 27, 2000 at 11:19:12AM +0000, Richard wrote:
> Graham
>
> Graham Spearing wrote:
>
> > What Linux ased apps are available in the Health sphere, how are they
> > supported, and are they being taken up?
>
> Last I heard was that Star Office spread sheets go down very well with
> medical people. Other one was that there's an Australian developer
> who has produced some veterinary software for Linux that can be used
> with people. It's a sort of medical database.
That _does_ sound amusing... Anyway, they shall not use
veterinary software on me!
The 2nd tip is true though. I have had a look at it in the past
as I have done some work for hospitals in the past on this respect. The
project is a collection of [php/cgi/mod_perl](delete as applicable)
scripts for time tabling with a (I think) SQL back-end. Where I used to
work, a similar approach was used. This simplifies the clients (you only
need a web-browser and the software is already written). However, in
this place I worked, we managed to make an Open Source breakthrough (all
comments on OS vs GPL and so on ... >/dev/null :D), as most of the
database back-end (what you bought off the vendor) was rather useless to
the doctors, so they provided the source for it so that it could be
customised in house.
One problem we found in this environment was the lack of budget.
In general, the tasks that are required of computers are two:
record-keeping and report production (or simple statistical analysis,
i.e., Spreadsheeting around). In this respect, Windows 3.11 is quite a
good solution as you can run it in a modest computer and use Word 6 and
Excel <something>. With star office you'd be looking at needing a memory
upgrade and a number of other things. Of coz, times are a-changing, and
in these environments people are moving towards using thin-clients (or
recycling old computers as thin-clients). That's the way our council's
working at the moment (I think that they are going for Linux Terminal
Server Project solution at the moment. For a council, that might be
fine, but I would find it a bit worrying in a hospital, the "terminal"
bit...). There were other options as well, but this seems to be the
preferred way. A good account of this is to be found at <httpIn general,
the tasks that are required of computers are two: record-keeping and
report production (or simple statistical analysis, i.e., Spreadsheeting
around). In this respect, Windows 3.11 is quite a good solution as you
can run it in a modest computer and use Word 6 and Excel <something>.
With star office you'd be looking at needing a memory upgrade and a
number of other things. Of coz, times are a-changing, and in these
environments people are moving towards using thin-clients (or recycling
old computers as thin-clients). That's the way our council's working at
the moment (I think that they are going for Linux Terminal Server
Project solution at the moment. For a council, that might be fine, but I
would find it a bit worrying in a hospital, the "terminal" bit...).
There were other options as well, but this seems to be the preferred
way. A good account of this is to be found at
<http://www.ltsp.org/shortstory.html>
Just my 0.02$ :) BTW, the web-server approach is freemed
<http://www.freemed.org>
Jose
--
José L Gómez Dans PhD student
Tel: +44 114 222 5582 Radar & Communications Group
FAX; +44 870 132 2990 Department of Electronic Engineering
University of Sheffield UK
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Sheffield Linux User's Group - http://www.sheflug.co.uk
To unsubscribe from this list send mail to
- <sheflug-request [at] vuw.ac.nz> - with the word
"unsubscribe" in the body of the message.
GNU the choice of a complete generation.