![[ Visit Client Website ]](images/banner.gif)
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Sadrivaan A and B (The Hilton Istanbul Hotel )
Introduction:
Free open source software solutions are been gradually adopted by the public sector in developed and developing countries, in order to supplement or replace proprietary software. Many applications are been developed for healthcare, but there is little scientific evidence about its effectiveness.
Objective:
To perform a review summarizing the results of studies published on scientific literature about free open source software in healthcare.
Method:
The following virtual libraries were searched: Medline, The Cochrane Library, Lilacs, WHOLIS and PAHO Library (via Bireme, the PAHO/WHO open-access virtual health library). All articles retrieved by using the expression “open source” were included in the review. Data were collected independently by both review authors. Only common features of the articles were quantitatively analyzed if comparable.
Results:
The search resulted in 923 articles found. The most frequent MeSH terms were: “software” (358; 38.8%), “algorithms” (132; 14.3%), “user-computer interface” (120; 13.0%), “internet” (105; 11.4%) and “computational biology” (94; 10.2%). The most frequent journals were related to the following fields: bioinformatics (25 journals; 312 articles), health informatics (15 journals; 144 articles), cell and molecular biology (17 journals; 106 articles), imaging (17 journals; 62 articles) and biochemistry (13 journals; 41 articles). The number of articles per year on this subject has increased exponentially since the first one was published in 1998. Only 24 articles presented some effectiveness or efficacy assessment.
Conclusions:
Since few studies presented outcome measurements, and even those differed widely on the assessment of these outcomes, quantitative analysis of efficiency and efficacy was not justified. Most part of the scientific production on free open source applications in health sciences are related to basic biomedical sciences, and applications for healthcare are still incipient. There is a need to increase the research on effectiveness of free open source healthcare applications, in order to produce evidence for its implementation.
Free open source software solutions are been gradually adopted by the public sector in developed and developing countries, in order to supplement or replace proprietary software. Many applications are been developed for healthcare, but there is little scientific evidence about its effectiveness.
Objective:
To perform a review summarizing the results of studies published on scientific literature about free open source software in healthcare.
Method:
The following virtual libraries were searched: Medline, The Cochrane Library, Lilacs, WHOLIS and PAHO Library (via Bireme, the PAHO/WHO open-access virtual health library). All articles retrieved by using the expression “open source” were included in the review. Data were collected independently by both review authors. Only common features of the articles were quantitatively analyzed if comparable.
Results:
The search resulted in 923 articles found. The most frequent MeSH terms were: “software” (358; 38.8%), “algorithms” (132; 14.3%), “user-computer interface” (120; 13.0%), “internet” (105; 11.4%) and “computational biology” (94; 10.2%). The most frequent journals were related to the following fields: bioinformatics (25 journals; 312 articles), health informatics (15 journals; 144 articles), cell and molecular biology (17 journals; 106 articles), imaging (17 journals; 62 articles) and biochemistry (13 journals; 41 articles). The number of articles per year on this subject has increased exponentially since the first one was published in 1998. Only 24 articles presented some effectiveness or efficacy assessment.
Conclusions:
Since few studies presented outcome measurements, and even those differed widely on the assessment of these outcomes, quantitative analysis of efficiency and efficacy was not justified. Most part of the scientific production on free open source applications in health sciences are related to basic biomedical sciences, and applications for healthcare are still incipient. There is a need to increase the research on effectiveness of free open source healthcare applications, in order to produce evidence for its implementation.
Learning Objectives: 1. Recognize the need for the develpment of scientific evidence on free open source applications in health siences. 2. Identify the state of the art of scientific evidence of free open source applications in health sciences. 3. Describe the main features of published scientific literature on free open source applications in health sciences.
Sub-Theme: Public Health and Research: Evidence Based Policy on Health