VA’s VistA Open Source Agent to Launch in August

The Veterans Affairs Department expects that the organization that will manage the open source community to modernize its VistA electronic health record will launch as the custodial agent in August. The Informatics Applications Group Inc. (TIAG), a management and technology services company that was awarded a $5 million VA contract, and its partners will start operations of the community in the fall, VA said in an announcement June 30.

VA has also established a website for the custodial agent organization, which sets the ground rules and manages the open source community, its processes and resulting software products. VA believes the collaborative method will generate innovation from more sources more quickly to advance the capabilities of the Veterans Integrated System Technology Architecture (VistA). Moving to an open source model invites innovation from the public and private sectors. VA will be just one of the participants, although a large one.