© 2004 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd & Association of Clinical Pathologists
VIEWPOINT
Computer systems
An open pathology computer system
Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr A Rubin
West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust, Department of Cytology, Watford General Hospital, Vicarage Road, Watford, Hertfordshire WD18 0HB, UK; alan.rubin@whht.nhs.uk
Suitable for pathology laboratories?
Keywords: computer systems; open source
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
The open source software movement is an initiative for the collaborative development of software whereby the source code can be distributed and altered freely. It is suggested that open source could provide a method for the development of cheap, robust, secure, and up to date pathology computer systems. Development of pathology systems would be aided by having open, agreed database structures
Departments of pathology are becoming ever more reliant on computer systems. These systems are used to record, store, transmit, and print pathology reports; calculate results, sometimes using interfaces with the machines used for analysis; and produce statistical analyses of results. Many pathologists may be satisfied with the performance of their computers, but others are frustrated by the inability of their systems to carry out straightforward tasks or to provide functions that should be well within the capability of modern systems. Core functions usually work reliably, but it
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
