GNUmed is a Free/Libre

electronic medical record An electronic health record (EHR) is the systematized collection of patient and population electronically stored health information in a digital format. These records can be shared across different health care settings. Records are shared thro ...

(EMR) for

Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...

systems ( BSD,

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...

, and UNIX systems),

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

and other platforms. GNUmed aims to provide

medical software Medical software is any software item or system used within a medical context, such as:reducing the paperwork, tracking patient activity * standalone software used for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes; * software embedded in a medical device (o ...

that respects the privacy of patients and that is based on open standards. GNUmed is based on third party projects such as

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, n ...

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized so ...

DBMS In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases ...

PostgreSQL PostgreSQL (, ), also known as Postgres, is a free and open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) emphasizing extensibility and SQL compliance. It was originally named POSTGRES, referring to its origins as a successor to the ...

and is written mostly in Python. It is supported by a

graphical user interface The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, ins ...

(GUI) based on

WxPython wxPython is a wrapper for the cross-platform GUI API (often referred to as a "toolkit") wxWidgets (which is written in C++) for the Python programming language. It is one of the alternatives to Tkinter. It is implemented as a Python extensio ...

History

The first version of the GNUmed was created by Horst Herb. When Herb ceased active development, the development of GNUmed was picked up by Karsten Hilbert who took over as project leader and partly overhauled the project. Karsten Hilbert was not alone in his efforts. Several other developers joined the team and helped at one time or the other: Syan Tan, Ian Haywood, Hilmar Berger, Sebastian Hilbert, Carlos Moro, Michael Bonert, Richard Terry, Tony Lembke and many more. While some concentrated on coding, many others, like Jim Busser and Rogerio Luz Coelho helped by creating documentation or by submitting other comments. The name was initially chosen to give credit to the

GNU project The GNU Project () is a free software, mass collaboration project announced by Richard Stallman on September 27, 1983. Its goal is to give computer users freedom and control in their use of their computers and computing devices by collabor ...

and GNUmed's connection to the medical profession. The logo depicts a

Gnu GNU () is an extensive collection of free software (383 packages as of January 2022), which can be used as an operating system or can be used in parts with other operating systems. The use of the completed GNU tools led to the family of operat ...

as a reference to the

accompanied by a Python as a reference to the programming language as well as to the medical profession. At the time, GNUmed was just another

project aiming to become an alternative to the established EMRs. It has since evolved to rival other EMRs in terms of functionality and performance.

Usage

GNUmed is primarily used to manage electronic medical records. It provides means of archiving paper records as well as collecting metadata on these records. Some uses include administrative tasks such as adding and activating patients, and recording tasks such as data on patients' allergies or immunization records.

Features

GNUmed supports a variety of features, many implemented as plugins which extend the core functionality. These can range a medical paper record archiving system to vaccination status handling. A list of features is provided in GNUmed's documentation system. By making use of GNUmed's interface 3rd party software can interact with GNUmed to make use of its features.

References

General references

* *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gnumed GNU Project software Free health care software Electronic health record software Healthcare software for macOS Healthcare software for Windows Healthcare software for Linux Software that uses wxPython