For the hospital’s medical records system, I have two open-source software packages under consideration. First impressions:

• OpenMRS is installed widely throughout the developing world, and is backed by powerhouses like Paul Farmer’s PIH and the Gates Foundation. This software seems to be tailored for collecting very structured data on a limited set of patient encounters. On the plus side, this means that large-scale analysis of the data is possible, but at the cost of inflexibility and high cost of implementation if there are many types of interactions that need to be tracked.
• OpenEMR, on the other hand, is a comprehensive software package aimed at general practice medical facilities. It has all kinds of features that are missing in OpenMRS like billing and appointment scheduling. On the other hand, I worry that the custom forms that I can design with it won’t be suited to the reporting and analysis that we need and that OpenMRS makes easy.

I’m not sure where we’ll land, on the balance. In any case, progress has been slow and frustrating. Any unanticipated file (say, XAMPP, at 28MB) can delay installation for a day…

Update (9/6): I’m moving forward with OpenMRS. For more notes on all of the EMR packages I looked at, check out the HEAL Africa ICT wiki.

I bought a new camera for my trip, and I’ve been pretty happy with it. I’m ashamed to say that I bought it for its retrofabulous styling, but it turns out that it can take some decent pictures, too, with reasonable preprogrammed modes and full manual control when I want to play with it. I’m including a range of sample photos, below.

Prosper, the director of the Goma Student Fund’s Mugunga school:

Rocks and algae, where the house property meets the lake:

Mosquito net in my room:

Expat friends at a party, last night. Photo taken on auto, under fluorescents:

Masks at the nearby woodcarving studio:

Kids at the Addis Ababa airport:

I see these wooden transport items (“chikadus” sp?) all over Goma. Sometimes, they’re piled with what must be a couple hundred kilos of cargo and pushed around town to make deliveries. I’ve seen similar contraptions in Southeast Asia, based on bicycle frames, but there are a few interesting differences:

• These chikadus are made from almost all locally-available materials. The axles may have to be imported, but the rest is wood and scrap rubber.
• They keep their cargo at a much lower center of gravity than a bicycle would, which would seem to increase capacity.
• They have a robust suspension system (those innertubes lashed to the steering fork) for the terrible roads here in Goma.

The photo, above, was taken from really far away. If I have time to find someone who makes these, I’ll take much better ones for a potential Instructable.