GNU Health is a free/libre health and

hospital information system A hospital information system (HIS) is an element of health informatics that focuses mainly on the administrational needs of hospitals. In many implementations, a HIS is a comprehensive, integrated information system designed to manage all the asp ...

with strong focus on

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

and

social medicine The field of social medicine seeks to implement social care through # understanding how social and economic conditions impact health, disease and the practice of medicine and # fostering conditions in which this understanding can lead to a health ...

. Its functionality includes management of

electronic health 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 throu ...

s and laboratory information management system. It is designed to be multi-platform, supporting

Linux distribution A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that includes the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system. Linux users usually obtain their operating system by downloading one ...

s and

FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), which was based on Research Unix. The first version of FreeBSD was released in 1993. In 2005, FreeBSD was the most popular ...

on the server side. It uses

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 ...

as its database engine. It is written in Python and uses the

Tryton ''Tryton'' is a three-tier high-level general purpose computer application platform on top of which is built an Enterprise resource planning (ERP) business solution through a set of Tryton modules. The three-tier architecture consists of the T ...

framework as one of its components. GNU Health has been adopted by the

United Nations University The (UNU) is the think tank and academic arm of the United Nations. Headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, with diplomatic status as a UN institution, its mission is to help resolve global issues related to human development and welfare thr ...

. In 2011, it became 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 ...

official package. It was awarded Best Project of Social Benefit from the

Free Software Foundation The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985, to support the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed under copyleft ( ...

LibrePlanet LibrePlanet (literally, "Free Planet") is a community project created and supported by the Free Software Foundation. Its objective is the promotion of free software around the world by bringing every year an international conference to local comm ...

2012, at

University of Massachusetts Boston The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a public research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus University of Massa ...

. GNU Health is a project of GNU Solidario, a non-profit non-governmental organization (NGO) that works in the areas of health and education with free software.

History

GNU Health started in 2008 by Luis Falcón as a project for health promotion and disease prevention in rural areas. Its initial name was Medical. It has since evolved into a hospital information system, with a multi-disciplinary international team of contributors. In August 2011,

Richard Stallman Richard Matthew Stallman (; born March 16, 1953), also known by his initials, rms, is an American free software movement activist and programmer. He campaigns for software to be distributed in such a manner that its users have the freedom to ...

declared GNU Health an official

GNU Package A number of notable software packages were developed for, or are maintained by, the Free Software Foundation as part of the GNU Project. What it means to be a GNU package Summarising the situation in 2013, Richard Stallman identified nine aspects ...

. Following this, development was moved from

SourceForge SourceForge is a web service that offers software consumers a centralized online location to control and manage open-source software projects and research business software. It provides source code repository hosting, bug tracking, mirroring ...

to GNU Savannah.

Usage

GNU Health is intended for health institutions and governments, with functionality to take care of the daily clinical practice, manage resources, and to improve

Features

GNU Health uses a modular approach around the kernel, with different functionality that can be included to meet the health center's needs. Some of the main packages are:

Cultural impact

* GNU Health was presented at

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level o ...

session "ICT for Improving Information and Accountability for Women’s and Children's Health" in WSIS Forum 2013. * GNU Health was awarded the

's 2011 Award for Projects of Social Benefit. * GNU Health won the awards PortalProgramas 2012, 2014 and 2015 for ''Most Revolutionary Free Software'' and ''Software with Largest Potential of Growth'' in 2012. * GNU Health awarded Sonderpreis at Open Source Business Award 2016 * In April 2022, GNU Health was included in the

Digital public goods Digital public goods are public goods in the form of software, data sets, AI models, standards or content that are generally free cultural works and contribute to sustainable national and international digital development. Use of the term "digit ...

registry

Project milestones

* 12 October 2008: Medical project registered at

* 2 November 2008: Medical Version 0.0.2 is released at

* 15 April 2010: Medical is registered at Brazilian government Portal do Software Público Brasileiro (SPB) * 31 July 2010: The Project is registered at the European Community

Open Source Observatory and Repository The Open Source Observatory and Repository (OSOR) is an online project launched by the European Commission under the IDABC programme, to support the distribution and re-use of software developed by or for public sector administrations across Eu ...

* 16 April 2011: Thymbra transfers GNU Health to the NGO GNU Solidario * 18 April 2011: Medical switches the development environment from OpenERP to the

framework. * 12 June 2011: The project is renamed from Medical to GNU Health. * 16 August 2011: version 1.3.0 is released, supporting

and

. * 26 August 2011:

declares GNU Health an official

. At this point, the development portal is moved from

to GNU Savannah. * 29 October 2011: Release of GNU Health v 1.4.1. This version is also included at the Python Package Index – PyPI as a set of Python modules. * 25 June 2012: Creation of a public Internet GNU Health database test server in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

. * 9 February 2013: Release of version 1.8.0, compatible with Tryton 2.6 and Android client * 18 March 2013: Release of version 1.8.1, with

Intensive Care Unit 220px, Intensive care unit An intensive care unit (ICU), also known as an intensive therapy unit or intensive treatment unit (ITU) or critical care unit (CCU), is a special department of a hospital or health care facility that provides intensi ...

functionality * 7 July 2013: Release of version 2.0.0. Compatible with Tryton 2.8, New modules for

Neglected tropical diseases Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a diverse group of tropical infections that are common in low-income populations in developing regions of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. They are caused by a variety of pathogens, such as viruses, bact ...

, starting with

Chagas disease Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is a tropical parasitic disease caused by ''Trypanosoma cruzi''. It is spread mostly by insects in the subfamily '' Triatominae'', known as "kissing bugs". The symptoms change over the co ...

. New

Demographics Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as ed ...

section and Domiciliary Units management; new server installer; improvements to the surgery module (

ASA physical status classification system The ASA physical status classification system is a system for assessing the fitness of patients before surgery. In 1963 the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) adopted the five-category physical status classification system; a sixth categ ...

and Revised Cardiac Risk Index). * 22 September 2013: Release of version 2.2.0

Dengue Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms typically begin three to fourteen days after infection. These may include a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic ...

and Diagnostic Imaging Tests. * 14 November 2013: Release of version 2.2.2 GNU Health Patchset. * 27 January 2014: Release of version 2.4.0 * 22 March 2014: First release of the GNU Health Live CD with GNU Health 2.4 and Tryton-Server 3.0.x on openSUSE 13.1. The Live CD offers a ready-to-run system with actual GNU Health and the Demo Database pre-installed. * 6 July 2014: Release of version 2.6.0. Adds

hash functions A hash function is any function that can be used to map data of arbitrary size to fixed-size values. The values returned by a hash function are called ''hash values'', ''hash codes'', ''digests'', or simply ''hashes''. The values are usually ...

for document verification;

digital signature A digital signature is a mathematical scheme for verifying the authenticity of digital messages or documents. A valid digital signature, where the prerequisites are satisfied, gives a recipient very high confidence that the message was created b ...

s and GPG integration. * 1 February 2015: Release of version 2.8.0. Adds Tryton 3.4 compatibility, data aggregation and synchronization features for distributed environments, a Universal Person Unique Identifier (PUID) and Universal Unique Identifier (UUID) implementation, a HL7 FHIR server, birth and death certificates, and enhanced crypto features (GNU Privacy Guard integration). * 11 January 2016: Release of version 3.0.0: Tryton 3.8 compatibility (including web client support); Person functionality and disability module, inspired in WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health; basic

Ophthalmology Ophthalmology ( ) is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a me ...

and

Optometry Optometry is a specialized health care profession that involves examining the eyes and related structures for defects or abnormalities. Optometrists are health care professionals who typically provide comprehensive primary eye care. In the Un ...

functionality, and WHO ICD9 CM Volume 3 procedural codes * 2 July 2017: Release of 3.2 series. GNU Health HMIS packages are now written in Python 3. Enhanced genetic history and

UniProt UniProt is a freely accessible database of protein sequence and functional information, many entries being derived from genome sequencing projects. It contains a large amount of information about the biological function of proteins derived from ...

package on human protein related conditions; Emergency Management System; Insurance pricelist; Improved crypto modules on laboratory and services; GNU Health Federation and Thalamus initial development. *26 July 2017: With the release of

openSUSE openSUSE () is a free and open source RPM-based Linux distribution developed by the openSUSE project. The initial release of the community project was a beta version of SUSE Linux 10.0. Additionally the project creates a variety of tools, s ...

Leap 42.3, GNU Health 3.2 becomes part of the standard distribution. This goes in line with automated testing using openQA and an easy, script-based setup. * 26 November 2018: GNU Health Federation. Version 3.4 for HMIS node * 10 November 2019: Release of version 3.6 . Integration of a person events (''"Pages of Life"'') with Thalamus and the GNU Health Federation Health Information system. Migration from

Mongodb MongoDB is a source-available cross-platform document-oriented database program. Classified as a NoSQL database program, MongoDB uses JSON-like documents with optional schemas. MongoDB is developed by MongoDB Inc. and licensed under the S ...

for the HIS component. Orthanc DICOM server integration. All components in the GNU Health ecosystem use Python3. * 24 June 2021: MyGNUHealth

Personal health record A personal health record (PHR) is a health record where health data and other information related to the care of a patient is maintained by the patient. This stands in contrast to the more widely used electronic medical record, which is operate ...

released. * 3 April 2022: GNU Health included in the

registry.

GNUHealthCon

GNUHealthCon is an annual conference organized by GNU Solidario. It provides the space for developers, implementers and community members to meet in person during three days. It includes sessions about social medicine, technical discussions, implementation cases and workshops.

GNU Health Social Medicine awards

GNU Health Social Medicine awards ceremony is part of GNUHealthCon. The awards recognize the role of individuals and organizations committed to improve the lives of the underprivileged. There are three award categories: Individual, Organization and GNU Health Implementation. GNU Health Social Medicine Awards

References

External links

*
GNU Health Translation Portal

GNU Health Con

GNU Solidario

GNU LIMS

Tryton Project website

European Community Open Source Observatory and Repository
* {{Free healthcare software Free health care software

Health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organ ...

Healthcare software for Linux Software that uses GTK