Guide: RarasNet Hospital Network

Step-by-step guide to connect your hospital to the RarasNet — a collaboration network where hospitals share cases, exchange diagnostic insights, and build a collective knowledge base for rare diseases.

What is RarasNet?

RarasNet is a federation of hospitals that connect directly to each other. No central server, no cloud dependency. Each hospital has its own digital identity and can:

• Share clinical cases with the network
• Receive specialist opinions from other hospitals
• Search a collective knowledge base
• Use local AI to assist with diagnostics (optional)

Hospital São Paulo  ──┐
Hospital Rio        ───┤── RarasNet ── Dashboard
Hospital Brasília   ───┘
Hospital B. Aires   ──┘

What you need

• A computer with internet access (the server your hospital already has is fine)
• About 10 minutes to set up

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Part 1: Network Coordinator Setup

This part is done once by whoever creates the network. If someone already gave you a join code, skip to Part 2.

Step 1: Install Society

npm install -g society-protocol

If npm is not recognized, install Node.js first: https://nodejs.org

Step 2: Create the network

society invite --relay --name RarasNet --room rarasnet --port 4001

Society automatically sets up a P2P relay so hospitals anywhere in the world can connect. After a few seconds you’ll see:

Society Protocol — Generating invite...

  Node running! Room: rarasnet
  Your address: [email protected]

  Share with friends:

    npx society join RarasNet

  Starting public relay...

  Public relay active!

  Share with anyone:

    npx society join RarasNet

That’s it. Send the join command to every hospital you want to connect.

Step 3: Keep the coordinator running

The coordinator node must stay online for hospitals to connect. To make it persistent on a Linux server:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/rarasnet.service

Paste:

[Unit]
Description=RarasNet Coordinator
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/npx society invite --relay --name RarasNet --room rarasnet --port 4001
Restart=always
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Activate:

sudo systemctl enable --now rarasnet

Now the network stays up even if the server reboots.

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Part 2: Connecting a Hospital

Every hospital follows these steps to join the network.

Step 1: Install Society

npm install -g society-protocol

Verify:

society --version

Step 2: Join the network

Use the command provided by the network coordinator:

npx society join RarasNet --name "Hospital São Paulo"

Done. Your hospital is now on the network:

Society Protocol — Joining network...

  Invite accepted! Joining room rarasnet...

  ✓ Connected! Room: rarasnet
  Identity: did:key:z6MkpT...
  Peers: 12 online

The identity (did:key:...) is unique to your hospital. It’s created automatically on first connection and reused on subsequent ones.

Step 3: See who’s online

society peers --room rarasnet

Room: rarasnet (15 hospitals online)

  HC FMUSP              connected 2 min ago
  Hospital Fiocruz      connected 5 min ago
  Hospital de Clínicas  connected 12 min ago
  Hospital Italiano     connected 1 hour ago
  ...

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Part 3: Using the Network

Send a case for discussion

society send --room rarasnet --text "Case: 34yo male. Persistent fever, hepatosplenomegaly, pancytopenia. Recent travel to endemic area. No response to antibiotics. Requesting infectious disease and hematology opinion."

All connected hospitals will receive the message.

Listen for messages

Open a separate terminal:

society listen --room rarasnet

You’ll see messages in real time:

[Hospital Fiocruz] Agree with visceral leishmaniasis hypothesis. Recommend bone marrow aspirate for amastigote detection.

[HC Porto Alegre] Consider kala-azar. We have experience with liposomal amphotericin B. Dose: 3mg/kg/day for 5 days.

[Hospital Italiano BA] Similar case in 2024. Sharing knowledge card with protocol.

Search the knowledge base

society knowledge search --query "leishmaniasis"

3 results found:

1. "Visceral Leishmaniasis — Atypical Presentation"
   Hospital: HC FMUSP | Confidence: 92%
   Tags: leishmaniasis, tropical, pancytopenia

2. "VL Treatment Protocol — Amphotericin B"
   Hospital: Hospital Fiocruz | Confidence: 95%
   Tags: leishmaniasis, treatment, protocol

3. "Differential Diagnosis of Febrile Pancytopenia"
   Hospital: HC Porto Alegre | Confidence: 88%
   Tags: pancytopenia, fever, differential-diagnosis

Share a finding

When your hospital discovers something relevant:

society knowledge add \
  --title "Visceral Leishmaniasis — Atypical Presentation" \
  --text "Patient without typical fever, only pancytopenia and hepatosplenomegaly. Bone marrow aspirate confirmed amastigotes. Important: consider VL even without classic presentation in travelers from endemic areas." \
  --tags "leishmaniasis,tropical,pancytopenia" \
  --confidence 0.92

The finding syncs automatically to every hospital on the network.

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Part 4: Optional Features

Enable local AI

If the hospital wants AI-assisted diagnostics, install Ollama:

curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh
ollama pull qwen3:8b

Then start the agent with AI enabled:

npx society join RarasNet --name "Hospital São Paulo" --ai ollama --model qwen3:8b

When a case arrives, the agent generates a local analysis:

[Local AI] Case analysis:
Differential diagnosis:
1. Visceral leishmaniasis (kala-azar) — most likely given clinical picture
2. Lymphoma — consider if bone marrow aspirate negative
3. Hemophagocytic syndrome — request ferritin and triglycerides
Recommended next steps: bone marrow aspirate, rK39 serology

The AI runs locally on the hospital’s own computer. No patient data leaves the institution.

Join specialty rooms

Besides the main room, you can join topic-specific rooms:

npx society join RarasNet --name "Hospital São Paulo" --room rarasnet-oncology
npx society join RarasNet --name "Hospital São Paulo" --room rarasnet-genetics
npx society join RarasNet --name "Hospital São Paulo" --room rarasnet-infectious

Create a federation of networks

If you coordinate multiple regional networks, connect them via federation:

# Create federation
society federation create \
  --name "RarasNet National" \
  --description "National rare disease network"

# Invite another network
society federation invite \
  --federation "RarasNet National" \
  --peer "RarasNet Northeast"

# Accept invite (on the other network)
society federation accept --invite-id "abc123"

# Bridge rooms between networks
society federation bridge \
  --from rarasnet-southeast \
  --to rarasnet-northeast

Now both networks share cases and knowledge automatically.

Open the visual dashboard

The network coordinator can host a web dashboard where everyone sees:

• Map of connected hospitals
• Real-time messages and cases
• Knowledge base browser
• Network statistics

Ask the coordinator for the dashboard URL (e.g., https://dashboard.rarasnet.org).

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Part 5: Keep Your Agent Running

To stay available on the network 24/7:

Linux

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/rarasnet-hospital.service

[Unit]
Description=RarasNet Hospital Agent
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/npx society join RarasNet --name "Hospital São Paulo"
Restart=always
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl enable --now rarasnet-hospital

Check status

sudo systemctl status rarasnet-hospital

Update the software

npm update -g society-protocol
sudo systemctl restart rarasnet-hospital

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FAQ

Is patient data secure?

Yes. Each hospital controls what it shares. Patient identity is never sent automatically — only the clinical information the physician decides to share. The AI runs locally, without sending data to any cloud.

Do I need IT staff to set up?

The initial install needs someone with terminal access. After that, daily use (sending cases, searching the knowledge base) can be done by anyone using the basic commands.

What if the internet goes down?

The agent reconnects automatically when the internet comes back.

How many hospitals can join?

No practical limit. The network has been tested with 20+ simultaneous hospitals. For larger networks (100+), the coordinator can set up regional federations.

How does the relay work?

When the coordinator runs society invite --relay, Society automatically creates a secure P2P relay tunnel. This gives the network a public address that any hospital can reach from anywhere — no special firewall rules, no external infrastructure, no extra cost. The relay is built into Society itself.

Can I join multiple rooms?

Yes. Besides the main room (rarasnet), you can join specialty rooms:

npx society join RarasNet --room rarasnet-oncology
npx society join RarasNet --room rarasnet-genetics

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Command Reference

Action	Command
Coordinator: create network	society invite --relay --name RarasNet --room rarasnet --port 4001
Hospital: join network	npx society join RarasNet --name "My Hospital"
See who’s online	society peers --room rarasnet
Send a message	society send --room rarasnet --text "message"
Listen for messages	society listen --room rarasnet
Search knowledge	society knowledge search --query "topic"
Share knowledge	society knowledge add --title "Title" --text "Content" --tags "tag1,tag2"
Check agent status	sudo systemctl status rarasnet-hospital
Update software	npm update -g society-protocol

Need help?

Open an issue at: https://github.com/prtknr/society/issues