If there is a sector where availability of open source products is critical, without a doubt it is that of medicine. Patient care is already quite expensive (largely thanks to the oligopoly of pharmaceutical laboratories and the cost of medical equipment) as to have to add that of software licenses. Also, in a profession where the dissemination of knowledge is essential, ease of sharing tools should be the norm.
En a previous article We had discussed a Linux distribution focused on training neuroimaging professionals in the use of free software. Now let's focus on one of the solutions created by Debian developers for use by medical professionals.
I repeat the clarification of the previous article. I'm not a doctor, and although I tried to find the most accurate translation with the help of Google, I may have screwed up. I appreciate the corrections in the comment form.
Debian Med. Debian for medical use.
To understand what it is Debian Med we must first explain the concept of Debian Pure Blend
A typical Linux distribution includes more than 20000 packages of all kinds. Some are system utilities whose installation is essential, others are general-purpose programs that are usually installed by default, and the rest are programs of various uses whose existence you will not know unless you start to examine the repositories. And if you use that true punishment from the gods that is the Gnome Software Center, you probably won't find half of it. If you are using a distribution based on the Debian / Gnome duo, the best thing is that install Synaptic Package Manager. It won't have a great user interface, but you can easily do all the repository-related work.
You can install it with the command:
sudo apt install synaptic
Debian developers found a solution, group the programs by category. That is to say that with a single command you can install the utilities with a common denominator. If you have installed Debian / Ubuntu / Linux MInt or another derived distribution you just have to use the command
sudo apt install med-all
The items of the programs that we can find are:
- Biology: applications for bioinformatics, molecular and structural biology.
- Developer tools: Utilities for the development of bioinformatics applications.
- Next Generation Sequencing: Bioinformatic applications usable in Next Generation Sequencing.
- Phylogeny: Programs for phylogenetics. If you didn't know the word (neither did I) I'll save you the trip to Google. It is the study of evolutionary relationships between different organisms.
- Cloud: Bioinformatics, molecular and structural biology tools optimized for use in the cloud.
- Content managers: Tools for creating medical-themed websites.
- Facts about remedies: Management of databases on drugs.
- Dentists: Utilities for managing dental offices.
- Epidemiology: Programs to be used by epidemiologists.
- Hospital information system: Software for information management in medical institutions.
- Imaging diagnosis: Processing and visualization of medical images.
- Development tools: Utilities for the creation of applications related to the processing and visualization of medical images.
- Lab: Programs for use in medical laboratory practices.
- Oncology: Applications related to cancer treatment. Particularly those that use radiation.
- Pharmacology: Computer tools for pharmacological research.
- Medical clinic: Programs for general medicine.
- Offices: Software for the management of private offices.
- Psychology: Programs for the practice of psychology and psychoanalysis professionals.
- Rehabilitation: Software for use with rehabilitation technology
- Investigation: Tools for use in medical research
- Statistics: Utilities for compilation and statistical analysis.
- Unclassified tools: Various programs that do not fall into any of the categories mentioned above.
- Publications: Software for the creation, layout and publication of medical material.
Are you a doctor or do you carry out any other health-related activity? We would love to know if you use free software tools and what they are In case nor you can do it, you can also tell us why. The comment form is at your disposal.
This is an absurd and ridiculous article.
The operating system is not by itself sufficient for medical management.
Hi, I'm a Linux user and installed medic-all and oncology. I would like to know what to do when I do this in the terminal, that is, where I see the application tool or utility. thank you in advance
Could you clarify the question a bit more?
I've been using Linux distributions for about 15 years, I'm a doctor and I'm always looking for Linux medical programs, I'd love to find an electronic file.
Are you referring to patient information management?
Saludoß, I would like to know if this program helps me to keep a history of patients, appointments, names, etc. But which ones do you recommend in advance. Thanks!
Hello Jose. This article is about a complete operating system, that is, it replaces Windows or MacOS. If you are looking for a specific program to manage patients, this may interest you
https://openemr.com.ar/
Thanks, Diego, for writing the article. I am a medical student, and I consider that obviously a free operating system, ready with all possible open tools pre-installed and in order for clinical practice and medical research is extremely important, both in supposedly developed economies and, with even more urgent, those that don't. I recently joined the group of developers, and it has honestly been through your instructions that I have found the command to install all the packages and not the official page of the pure blend. Thanks again for that, and publicize the project. It takes a lot more people to join. Allow me to insert another related topic: I am also starting a decision-making (support) system for treatment management in the context of my doctoral thesis; It will be open source and free, part of Debian Med if everything comes to fruition. I would love to contact and speak with other people interested in these topics to work together. My email is research@enricgarcia.md.