'Huge Growth Potential For Open Source Hospital Information System'

GNU Health, an free software hospital information system, medical record system and health information system, is rapidly becoming popular in hospitals around the world, says one of its developers, Sebastian Marro. "This project has the potential to grow really large."

Marro presented GNU Health at the Medetal conference in Luxenbourg, earlier this month. The GNU Health software is supported by a not-for profit organisation, GNU Solidario, set up in Spain. Marro, based in Argentina, is one of the board members of the NGO.

The online community of hospital specialist and software developers result in more and more added functionalities. The software can now also be used by hospitals for tasks such as human resources management, invoicing, financial reporting and resource management, said Marro. "It helps keeping tabs on the hospital lab, the pharmacy and patient admission."