Zangara Gianluca, Valentino Francesca, Spinelli Gaetano, Valenza Mario, Marcheggiani Angelo, Di Blasi Francesco
1 National Research Council, Institute of Biomedicine and Molecular Immunology "Alberto Monroy," Palermo , Italy .
Telemed J E Health. 2014 Jul;20(7):673-7. doi: 10.1089/tmj.2013.0239. Epub 2014 Jun 6.
The use of open source technologies to create collaboration platforms can produce huge advantages with small investment.
We set up a telemedicine network for a healthcare district with typical centralization issues of developing countries. Our network was built using broadband Internet connection, and the digital divide in rural areas was reduced by means of wireless Internet connection. A software infrastructure was deployed on the network to implement the collaboration platform among different healthcare facilities.
We obtained an integrated platform with modest investment in hardware and operating systems and no costs for application software. Messaging, content management, information sharing, and videoconferencing are among the available services of the infrastructure. Furthermore, open source software is managed and continuously updated by active communities, making it possible to obtain systems similar to commercial ones in terms of quality and reliability.
As the use of free software in public administration is being widely promoted across the European Union, our experience may provide an example to implement similar infrastructures in the field of healthcare and welfare.
利用开源技术创建协作平台能够以小投入产生巨大优势。
我们为一个存在典型发展中国家集中化问题的医疗区建立了一个远程医疗网络。我们的网络通过宽带互联网连接构建而成，并且借助无线互联网连接减少了农村地区的数字鸿沟。在该网络上部署了一个软件基础设施，以实现不同医疗设施之间的协作平台。
我们以适度的硬件和操作系统投资获得了一个集成平台，且应用软件无需成本。消息传递、内容管理、信息共享和视频会议是该基础设施可用的服务。此外，开源软件由活跃的社区进行管理和持续更新，从而有可能在质量和可靠性方面获得与商业软件类似的系统。
随着欧盟各地公共管理中免费软件的使用得到广泛推广，我们的经验或许可为在医疗保健和福利领域实施类似基础设施提供一个范例。
