VistA Marketing Ramps Up in Advance of DoD EHR Award

A marketing campaign aimed at raising the profile of the Veterans Affairs Department's open source electronic health record is in full swing. A non-profit group founded through a VA contract to advance the department's Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture has stood up a website, Twitter account and LinkedIn group to promote VistA.

The push comes as the Defense Department considers four proposals for the Defense Healthcare Management System Modernization. DHMSM (pronounced DIM-sum) will replace the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application, or AHLTA, the Composite Health Care System, and EHR components including AHLTA-Theater. The department plans to award the $11 billion contract in July 2015.

But just because the department is looking for a "commercial" solution doesn't mean open source solutions don't meet the requirements for competition. A proposed solution from PricewaterhouseCoopers, General Dynamics Information Technology, DSS and MedSphere is built on VistA, while the other three bids are comprised of proprietary solutions...