A very momentous time for VistA/CPRS in a recent meeting. It is encouraging to see questions such as:
Is VistA suitable as a national model?
How can VistA be developed for use in the public/private sector?
What is an appropriate strategy for modernizing VistA?
In addition, “It has been suggested that there may be advantages in making VistA available to a broader community that could include both government and nongovernment entities,”
Yes! like collaboration with open source groups such as WorldVistA.org
These are the folks who have done nifty things like removing the pain from full VistA installs with Astronaut VistA, or being able to run the “toaster” version on a flash drive. It looks like there could be great mutual benefit from fully sanctioned collaboration between the VHA and the Open Source community.
I know…it’s really neat to see the way they are taking Vista in different ways. I really expect to see massive changes in health IT in next 10 years. I know its complicated but the current situation just doesnt make sense with patient expectations in 2010.
The American Council for Technology – Industry Advisory Council (a non-profit organization that links the Government with the IT industry) recently held a call to volunteers to assist VA with their efforts to improve VistA. Below is a blurb sent to the ACT-IAC membership. If you have further ideas please don’t hesitate to provide them.
“It has been suggested that there may be advantages in making VistA available to a broader community that could include both government and non-government entities. While no decision has been made about such an initiative, the VA’s management is interested in understanding the issues, challenges and opportunities associated with such an action. The government is also seeking advice on how to upgrade the system to take advantage of innovative software and technologies (VistA was developed in MUMPs).
The VA’s Chief Information Officer has asked ACT-IAC to assist in addressing the above issues. While the major objective of this project is to look at the VistA system, a second objective is to identify and develop a set of principles and guidelines that can be applied to other governmental systems that may have similar issues. The project will be conducted by volunteers from IAC member companies. The entire government IT community and other relevant constituencies will be invited to participate as appropriate.”