An Albanian open source telemedicine platform.

Introduction: The use of open source technologies to create collaboration platforms can produce huge advantages with small investment.

Materials And Methods: We set up a telemedicine network for a healthcare district with typical centralization issues of developing countries. Our network was built using broadband Internet connection, and the digital divide in rural areas was reduced by means of wireless Internet connection. A software infrastructure was deployed on the network to implement the collaboration platform among different healthcare facilities.

Results: We obtained an integrated platform with modest investment in hardware and operating systems and no costs for application software. Messaging, content management, information sharing, and videoconferencing are among the available services of the infrastructure. Furthermore, open source software is managed and continuously updated by active communities, making it possible to obtain systems similar to commercial ones in terms of quality and reliability.

Conclusions: As the use of free software in public administration is being widely promoted across the European Union, our experience may provide an example to implement similar infrastructures in the field of healthcare and welfare.