Past Awards - GNU Health Social Medicine Awards 2016

Richard Stallman

Dr. Richard Stallman is the father of the Free Software philosophy, and a social activist. Projects like GNU/Linux or GNU Health would not exist without him. Millions of people around the world benefit from the GNU GPL license, which he authored, and which brings Freedom to software. In a world where a handful of technological giants strive to destroy our privacy, and take control of our personal information, Dr. Stallman is the light that makes us realize the importance of things such as Freedom and solidarity.

We have been honored to have him in many of the GNU Solidario events, both at IWEEE and at GNU Health Con, and we hope to hear his “Happy Hacking” for many more years to come. Come what may, his lessons and philosophy are now part of all of us.

Red Cross

The fundamental principles of the Red Cross are: Humanity, Impartiality, Neutrality, Independence, Voluntary Service, Unity,and Universality. The Spanish Red Cross has been present at GNU Solidario’s International Workshop on eHealth in Emerging Economies (IWEEE) since the conference's first edition, in 2011, talking about its missions and its logistics center in Gran Canaria. It is truly remarkable to see the work they do helping refugees, or being on the front lines helping the underprivileged, wherever there is war, earthquakes, hurricanes or domestic violence---anywhere in the world.

As a side note, we were impressed and proud to see a presentation about how the Mexican Red Cross implemented GNU Health and embraced Free Software. Way to go !

Laos CRM

Laos CMR is a model of resilience. Laos endured world-record bombings during the Vietnam war.

Today, the Laos Center of Medical Rehabilitation provides medical care and helps thousands of victims of unexploded ordinances (UXOs) and people suffering from disabilities, enabling a better existence for all of them.

In 2014, together with the MoH and local IT (Calat), Laos CMR decided to implement GNU Health as their Health and Hospital information System. During these two years of using GNU Health, they have provided over 67,000 medical services, automated their finances, prescriptions, stock management, medical appointments and evaluations, diagnostic imaging, and the demographics tracking for the thousands of patients they assist.