Horst Herb wrote: > On Sat, 12 Mar 2005 09:38, Tim Churches wrote: > >>Initial investigations by Brendan Scott, David Guest and myself suggest >>that it is likely that a properly configured non-profit R&D foundation >>dedicated to open source health software development would receive >>approval for tax-deductible status from the ATO. > > My own research suggests that the costs of running a not-for-profit > organization in Australia (all fees, levies, duties, mandatory audits etc.) > are just atrocious.
Brendan Scott, who is a lawyer who specialises in open source licensing and related IP issues, seems to think it would be worthwhile, despite the fees, which are high but not unmanageable for a non-profit charitable foundation. > I talked to somebody from Greenpeace and he told me running costs of > Greenpeace in Australia due to administrative fees imposed on them by the > government are among the highest world wide. Unless I am mistaken, Greenpeace are not a charity with tax-deductible status. It may be a non-profit organisation, but that's not the same thing. I think you'll find that things are not quite so bad for tax-deductible charitable organisations. > If we had accountants etc. working pro bono, the compliance costs would still > be high (and the amount of paperwork nauseating) but bearable. But who would > know an accountant working for gnumed for free? Some pro-bono professional services would definitely be needed to make it fly. We already have a lawyer who is will to contribute some time, either for free or at reduced rates. >>However, there is still a HUGE amount of work to be done before GnuMed >>is ready for production use. The GnuMed team is still wrestling with >>(and iterating over) the design of fundamental aspects of the programme. >>Version 0.1, with a full working GUI, is yet to be released. > > > You forget one minor but important detail: I *am* using gnumed-mini daily in > my practice and it does most things. I have taken many shortcuts (almost no > documentation in the code, nowhere near as elegantly designed as > gnumed-proper), and the database is not properly normalized (and often I > still just leech onto the medibase database) but I reckon it is less than 3 > weeks full time work to make it work for others too A question and a comment: a) Where is the code for gnumed-mini? I (and others, no doubt) would love to have a look at what you are using in day-to-day use, Horst. b) The inflation factor between Horst-time and everyone-else-time appears to be at least one order of magnitude. In other words, if it would take you an estimated 3 weeks of work to make it work for everyone else, then it would take anyone else at least ten times that long - which is approaching my initial estimates for completing Gnumed (not forgetting the need for professional-looking, well written system nd end-user documentation etc, test harnesses etc). I am not being entirely flippant regarding Horst-time, and you have recently said that there is no more Horst-time to be had, anyway. > (meaning you can add, view, edit, delete demographic information, add and > view > simple progress nodes, code diagnoses and associate them with progress notes, > record and browse family and social histories and risk factors, record and > browse a few observations, import, comment and browse pathology results, and, > view and administrate simple recalls, prescribe medication incl. viewing > context sensitive reference information, browse medication history. If we > integrate Carlos' SOAP editor (currently I am just using a plain text > widget), and already existing/working modules like vaccinations and document > archival, we have something useful already. > > It needs refining alright, and has lots of aesthetic warts (Richard will > cringe and turn green), but I do manage with it in my own practice day to > day. Point us at the code, Horst, and we'll let you know what we think. Doesn't matter if it is incomplete or unpolished - you won't be criticised for that - people are just interestd in seeing a practical working example of Gnumed. And it would also allow independent assessment of what it would take to bring it to production status to be made. Tim C _______________________________________________ Gnumed-devel mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnumed-devel
