GNU Health/介紹

關於本書

這本書介紹了 GNU Health、免費健康和醫院信息系統。與傳統書籍不同的是，這本書將會隨着最新的 GNU Health 穩定版本一起更新。健康是會隨着時間改變的， GNU Health 也是會隨着時間改變的。

版本控制：這本書將包括即將發布的版本的功能，幾周後才能發布穩定版。這意味着書中的一些文本和圖片屬於新版本。

這本書是由下面部分組成：

GNU Health 的介紹
功能指南：項目背後的理念和核心功能。提供有關如何接近 GNU Health 實現的信息。
模塊詳情：特定模塊的信息和指令。每個模塊都有專門的功能(小兒科，外科，婦科，社會經濟…)
技術：安裝手冊、管理員的指導

如果您從 GNU Health 開始，您應該以線性、順序的方式閱讀這本書。這是理解軟件、項目以及如何實現它的最好方法。

GNU Health 功能

GNU Health的主要領域是：

個人和社區管理：demographics, domiciliary units, families, operational areas and sectors, ...
病人管理：Socioeconomics, lifestyle, encounters / evaluations, hospitalizations, lab reports, clinical history, ...
健康中心管理：Finances, stock, pharmacy , laboratory, beds, operating rooms, appointments, supply chain management, human resources, ...
信息管理：Reporting, Demographics and Epidemiology

These areas involve a multi-disciplinary teams, with different responsibilities. For example, the individual demographics and status of the domiciliary units (DU) can be collected by social workers; the patient management by health professionals ; the health center management by administrative personnel and accountants ; and the Information produced by the health center can be processed and managed by the Ministry of Health authorities.

This is just an example to show the importance of team work in GNU Health to get be best results in your community.

Deploying GNU Health: Centralized vs Distributed Installations

GNU Health is scalable in functionality, database size, and transactional volume. For instance, you can install GNU Health in a single doctor office, or in country public hospitals network. Depending on the type of deployment, you will think about a centralized (single instance) vs a distributed installation.

Single GNU Health Instance: All the information resides in a single database, and it will be accessed via network from different workstations from the same health center (local area network) or from different health centers.
Distributed GNU Health instances: Under this scenario, each health center has its own database instance, and information can be synchronized among health centers. This would be the case when you want to deploy GNU Health in a network of hospitals, where the communication infrastructure is suboptimal.

Needless to say, choosing the deployment method requires careful study of resources (hardware, network, human resources, security and access control, backup and disaster recovery policies, ... ) that goes beyond the scope of this book. The two types of installations have pros and cons.

Unique Patient ID: In hand-written histories and in some electronic medical records, it is not uncommon to find duplicate patients or duplicate medical records. This scenario is not only costly, but it may represent a risk to the patient.

The other problem people face in many countries is data isolation. That is, health centers don't communicate with each other, resulting in a different medical history on each center. In other words, in many health care systems today, you are a different person and patient at each health center you visit.

GNU Health uses a unique person and patient identifier, that does not allow the duplication of either individuals or patient medical history at the health center. It allows exporting the information to the patient card, and it provides the framework to synchronize data between health centers. For quick patient identification in different health care networks, the patient ID can be read, for example, with a QR reader, speeding up the registration process and avoiding common human errors.

If you plan to use a distributed environment in your health network, you can find more information about it in the GNU Health Synchronization Guide.