[ox-en] [Freesw] meeting report: eHealth in Developing Countries (fwd)
- From: Graham Seaman <graham seul.org>
- Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2001 11:20:28 -0400 (EDT)
Another forward...this time more in tune with Oekonux (ie.
open source outside the purely software area). I'm not sure if
this is annoying people; are many others on the freesw list and
so receiving these anyway?
Graham
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 3 Jul 2001 16:26:51 [PHONE NUMBER REMOVED] (UTC)
From: Bud P. Bruegger <bud sistema.it>
Reply-To: freesw conecta.it
To: ec-os-list <freesw conecta.it>
Subject: [Freesw] meeting report: eHealth in Developing Countries
This may interest some of you:
Joseph Dal Molin and I (both of the SPIRIT project,
http://www.euspirit.org) were invited to give a presentation on open
source at "eHealth in Developing Countries--The Future of Health Care?"
(http://www.cid.harvard.edu/ciditg/eHealth.htm). The meeting was
organized by Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Center for International
Development (http://www.cid.harvard.edu/ciddirector/) and took place on
June 18 at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University,
Cambridge, MA, United States.
The presentation (http://www.cid.harvard.edu/ciditg/Health/pres.html)
introduced open source in a wider sense, applicable to all copy right
products including software and (educational) content. It focussed on the
benefits of the approach for developing countries including the following:
* increase of activity and innovation
* better adaptation to local needs
* shift from remote intellectual property cost to local service cost
* technology transfer and stimulation of local commercial activity
* ease of collaboration and sharing between high and low cost areas
* sustainability
* cost-effective replication of best practice solutions
The presentation also outlined the state of open source in health care
and presented the SPIRIT project (http://www.euspirit.org) as an example
of how to incubate open source activities (in health care) and how to
accelerate uptake.
Among the participants
(http://www.cid.harvard.edu/ciditg/Health/participant.html), there
already seemed to be a relatively high level of awareness of open source
and its benefit for sustainable development. Also the organizers gave
open source a high priority by scheduling it as one of only three
plenary session presentations (that then slipped to dinner). Also the
presence of some very strong open source promoters seemed to be very
encouraging.
I came away with the impression that open source may well make inroads
in developing countries where people have everything to gain and nothing
to lose. Health care seems to be the way of least resistance (probably
closely followed by education).
--bud
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