NHS England to fund NHS VistA projects

NHS England will spend some of the £260m Technology Fund on further exploring the creation of an NHS version of the US Veterans Health Association’s open source electronic medical record, VistA.  eHI revealed last week that senior figures from NHS England have visited the US to see VistA in action.

The guidance that NHS England issued today on creating ‘integrated digital care records’ suggests they came back impressed. The guidance , which lays out the direction for electronic patient records in the NHS and explains how trusts can access Technology Fund money, notes that many open source projects are already under way across the health service in England.

Despite this, it says that “we are looking to adopt some of ethos behind [VistA’s] creation and potentially part, or all, of the technical product, in combination with others, to generate ‘NHS VistA’.” The guidance says that trusts interested in getting involved with “the initial pilot of ongoing development and implementation of NHS VistA” can indicate this on the application form for Technology Fund money...