All Scrubbed Up

First off, let me say that we were blown away with the response to what was initially just a little idea – a dream to do something to uplift technology infrastructure in the South African industry that needs it the most. Thank you for all the responses, comments and advice. Now comes the tricky part. What to do with all this information? Well, thankfully we’ve met a couple of keen individuals who might be able to push this project in some kind of direction – and we’ll be chatting with them over the next couple of months. A contact in the South African medical administration (ie. Government) would be helpful!? Nothing happens in South Africa if it doesn't go through official channels. It's a project killer - so we'd prefer to meet people who can have those conversations first! For everyone’s benefit, including my own, here’s a summary of related topics/sites/projects that people have been kind enough to post. I’ve had a look at all of them, and commented where appropriate. G...

Andy eventually got me to sit down and give some prelim views. The trickiest thing, if you REALLY want to make a difference in South Africa is planning. There are a couple of lovely third world things that get in the way: *Politicans *Egos of management *Distribution *Concentrating on PATIENT MANAGEMENT, not financial management. * Training *Training *Training For instance, if the open source community can help with the situation I'm about to describe, and just this, you have no idea how much of a difference it will make to primary healthcare in this country. Build the "system" so it can be grown, sure. But little steps is the only way you'll get anywhere in a third world country. Here's the situation. Primary healthcare patients (GP-based needs, meant to go to clinics, both rural and metro BEFORE they get referred up to secondary and tertiary centres - where they would get seen by specialists and clog up already clogged hospitals) HAVE to carry around a green pie...

So far, our little post-on-a-whim "Ubuntu across the medical industry" idea has been featured on (and mighty thanks to!): Linux Today Centromimir.IT Centromimir LiveSpace Shashum.Com.Ar The Open Source Pimp Netscape Redtram Linux Medical News Africa By Art We've also started doing a bit of digging... nothing like a good idea to inspire some late night surfing-with-purpose... Mercy Hospital Opens Arms to Open Source... (Tina Gasperson) "For almost 100 years a group of women called the Sisters of Mercy have been instilling a spirit of excellence into Baltimore's biggest hospital, appropriately named Mercy. Right from the start, the Sisters have made it their goal to push the medical institution beyond the ordinary by creating teaching affiliations, feeding the hungry, building state-of-the-art emergency services, and launching a neighborhood health center for the inner-city poor. In today's world, all that excellence requires a solid technology infrastructure-...

Hello chaps... Thanks for all the interest shown in the Ubuntu story so far. We are quite serious about pursuing the merits / sustainability of such an idea - with a view to handing over implementation to a non-profit... Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. A special thanks to the first couple of people to prick up their ears: Mike Stopforth , Aaron and Farrel . We'll keep gathering interested parties together and see what happens. That's usually how these things start. Things we're particularly interested in, and will research for a couple of new year posts... 3rd World PC Projects. Who exports old PC's and to where? Sustainability. Nothing is for free anymore. If the idea on the table allows national collaboration in the medical field, and empowers the medical profession to be more efficient - who pays the bills? Software. I'll bring SA Doc into the fold here - we need to figure out firstly, what do hospitals / doctors / nurses ACTUALLY need in terms of soft...

The start of the argument about Health 2.0 got me thinking. As sexy, functional and efficient as the health software trend may be - I think we all agree on the fact that it's just not applicable in the African context... yet. So what might be applicable? SA Doctors need lab results, need to do research, need to store and retrieve patient records (on demand)... How do you get a connected, low cost, easy to use, low maintenance technology infrastructure into South Africa's hospital system? And then keep it there? We've been using Ubuntu Linux (a proudly South African distribution of the Linux operating system - with our very own billionaire Mark Shuttleworth as the brains) around the office a bit - mainly to do tricky techy stuff, but I've been absolutely blown away with the new version (6.06 I think). It's funky, it's African, it's VERY easy to use (provided you don't mess with settings / use installed packages - which are more than ample for everyday u...