LINAGORA GSE 'Blog

LINAGORA GSE the south agency of LINAGORA Group (Marseille,) exchange offices LINAGORA took more than 230 m2 in the heart of the "Technopole de la Belle de Mai" in Marseille. The technopole houses, many companies in the areas of graphic design, computers, communication. Its offices are home to the studios of the "Plus belle la Vie" soap.

The Group LINAGORA expanding and consolidating its development in Marseille, the second city of France. LINAGORA is the major projects based on free software, and therefore be in Marseille, the contact of large organizations, local communities. Large projects are already underway, others are coming.

Many jobs have already been created within this agency, and purpose of the group and the local job creation and boosting the local sector of Open Source

Just a small detail. If I could have a car like that, I would have more space ..

When I took the bus back to me Mc Kormick Place, for the fifth day, it snowed on Chicago, a thick snow that sticks.

I saw that there were already seven o'clock in the morning many people, even if the show exhibitors had not yet publicly available. I started about eight hours with a cases-based review of oncologic imaging .This presentation whose main topic of interest FDG 18, the impact of chimiotherapy on the action of FDG was very interesting. Then about ten hours and thirty i continued with a conference on imaging in the operating room, and trends on this point. The trend is precisely the proximity of the imaging operating room, with operations rooms equipped with MRI or CT, with all means of treatment and reconstruction of the image. Although I remain convinced that the speed of diagnosis including stroke early is a necessity, I found that the speakers in their speeches have been difficult to justify the price of these facilities, which tend to major reference centers on the treatment of emergencies.

Around 12:30, I ran into the room S406 to attend a conference on open source technologies in medical imaging. Very interesting and interactive as we could test solutions, this conference has shown us how the free softwares brings to this sector both in terms of DICOM viewvers, but also more complex infrastructures, such as PACS or the IHE. I 've reviewed OsiriX, but also 3D SLICER a very good but complex viewver..This solution that caught my attention the most was DJANGO which is an open source framework developed in Python, based on Apache and PostgreSQL, and allowing the import / export Data from PACS or to the RIS.Its support DICOM and HL7 standard and it is highly configurable.This framework can serve as a basis for application development. I could see its personalization for the sector of imaging through a platform for exchange of inter hospital.

I could also see open source PACS including one developed on a basis Zope quite interesting and very complete.

I get off at the showroom where I stayed a moment with Wolfgan K. MASTEK Department of Radiology at the University of Vienna, with whom I spoke, and requested more information on configuring DJANGO.

In the middle of the afternoon, I closed this day on the stands of exhibitors, by visiting the booths of companies offering PACS especially OnePacs, Double Jack Imaging, and TOSHIBA which presented its new scanner AQUILLON ONE.

Here, the actors have a business vision of this sector. There is even the Radiology Business Journal, very interesting indeed. We are not here in the "public services"vision (french vision) .But the technicals advances here are major, free, strong and investment. All this is hampered in France, this approach "public services", and only the larger centers now have PACS or to IHE. The potential in this country is enormous, compared to the U.S. market on which the market is saturated.

I also noticed during my visit that few U.S. companies had offices in Europe which poses a real problem in terms of support of applications.Larges companies like GE or Siemens have the infrastructure necessary for that.

Leaving in the evening I see that still snowing, and that the night had fallen. I decided to go eat a piece at the Hard Rock Cafe of Chicago in the company of Eddie Van Halen and ZZ TOP, and I returned to my hôtel.Chicago is beautiful at night.

The third day was quite dense. First, there was a lot of visitors this day. The day starts early, by running on the computer radiology practices, presentation by the computer foundation imaging in medicine. The practices are being changer.we are in the era of PACS and RIS which occupy particularly in the U.S. market a important place.Connectivity between hospitals, is a central concern here. In terms of technology, the tendency is to web-based PACS, and PACS ready for use. The surprise is that the architecture of these is bate on Open Source Technologies.The starting price here is $ 5K for a PACS input range. In terms of interfaces, the Java technologies that are in the spotlight. Much progress on human-machine too.Methods of interpretation and access to the images are changing too, with the abandonment of radiological film and a preponderance of digital.

Brief interesting and rewarding.

I pursued this day with a visit to Dell's stand that proposed solutions to high availability and virtualization for the imaging industry based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Stand Stratus Technologies was quite interesting, since partner Dell, positioning it on infrastructure. I spent some time with Rick Fisher System Engineer, who introduced me his compagny

I finished this morning with Chris BAXTER from DICOM Solutions. The particularity of this American society, is that it offers low cost PACS based on Linux and open source technologies, ready for use. My interlocutor was intrigued when I tell him that it's possible to make $ 17M CA on open source technologies.

Lunch then we can eat anywhere here in Chicago.

I decided on the afternoon of exiting see the exhibitors, there are so many.

I saw a single French company, which is active in the Business Intelligence in the field of imaging.

I went on the stand that IBM also is present in this market. He mostly been presented, infrastructure solutions, and PACS, to the very large structures. My contact at IBM insisted on their capacity for integration in heterogeneous environments and sometimes very difficult

In short a busy day

The first day was an opportunity to spot the places, in Mc Kormick Place in Chicago, and to see everything was ready.

The weather was quite cold, but beautiful.

Arrived at 10h00 local time, I see that everything was not yet ready, and things began serious until the next day.

In the meantime, I decided to go to visit the Navy Pear alentours.Here I found a lot of shops, people too.

Note that this Congress begins the day after Thanksgiving and that many people in suburban Chicago advantage of the log wekker end to make their purchases in Chicago, especially on Michigan Avenue

I stayed at the Allerton Hotel on Michigan Avenue, the Champs Elysees of Chicago. There are mainly luxury shops, and an apple store where I decided to venture. I love this concept, highly interactive between potential clients and marketers.

I concluded a visit by water tower which also includes many shops.

I find that Americans eat too much, even I who in appetite, I can not keep up.

I decide evening, to a working session for Linagora GSE, and treat cases.

The time difference is that I fall asleep early to wake up very early ..