VistA

See the following -

Open Source and EHRs: A proven reality and invaluable opportunity

Michael J. Doyle | Healthcare IT News | September 20, 2011

The marriage between open source technology and electronic health records is at first blush, greeted by many with skepticism regarding robustness and efficacy. In truth, persistent myths obscure an intriguing reality: Open source EHR systems are not only possible but already in place. Read More »

Open source EHRs empower America's community health centers

How the economics of open source make sense for large scale, national healthcare infrastructure projects. A recent study  published by the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, examined "the use of open source electronic health records within the federal safety net."

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Open Source Electronic Health Records: A Cost Solution For Hospitals

Zina Moukheiber | Forbes | August 24, 2012

When Oroville Hospital decided to digitize its patient medical records three years ago,...chief executive Robert Wentz...did something almost unheard of for a health care executive: he went open source. As the saying goes in this conservative industry, no one gets fired for picking Epic. Wentz’s decision is not for the squeamish or the straight-laced. It forced long-time hospital administrators with tight schedules and deadlines to loosen up and collaborate with a network of free agents—open source programmers who voluntarily support a publicly available electronic health record called VistA...

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Open Source Governance and the Rise of a New Open Health Movement

It's hard to tell if (or when) new open source foundations will appear and claim a leading role in healthcare. It would be interesting to see one created to scale an existing viable model, such as the one from Oroville Hospital using VistA. Or we could see OSEHRA shifting its focus and expanding its charter beyond just the US government space. Nevertheless, the successful foundation would keep a low barrier to entry for innovators, allowing them to incorporate and scale open source healthcare technologies into commercial products. Time will tell, but what's for certain is that we live in interesting times, and I am looking forward to massive innovation in healthcare in the near future. The time is ripe.

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Open Source Health IT Solutions for Governments to Consider

Peter Groen | GovLoop | January 5, 2012

Healthcare is a major budget item for government at all levels. There are now many high quality, free and open source Health IT systems that community hospitals and clinics should consider using as an alternative to more expensive commercial systems. This could save state & local governments 'big' bucks...

Open Source Hospital Information System to be Packaged for Debian

Gijs Hillenius | Joinup | July 17, 2012

The Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA), an open source hospital information system used in 160 hospitals, several hundreds of clinics and more than a hundred nursing homes, will become part of the Debian free software distribution. This was announced at the Libre Software Meeting (LSM/RMLL) in Geneva, last week Wednesday. Read More »

Open Source Initiatives Rated Highly

Aliya Sternstein | nextgov | December 30, 2010

Accenture and ACT-IAC particularly praised the administration's support for open standards in building health IT software. For example, the Veterans Affairs Department is considering upgrading digital patient records with open source software -- programs that use nonproprietary coding -- that would let outside developers improve and modify the code. VA's current e-records system, Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA), is based on a 1996 model for information exchange. Read More »

Open Source Is So Much More Than Free Code

Roger Baker | FCW | December 6, 2016

In 2011, the Department of Veterans Affairs officially moved its most critical software, the VistA electronic health record system, into open source by establishing the Open Source Electronic Health Record Alliance (OSEHRA). Along the way, VA officials solicited and followed advice from numerous open source experts, including Red Hat, Carnegie Mellon University and the Industry Advisory Council...

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Open source tools, OSEHRA gain momentum at VA

Mary Mosquera | Government Health IT | October 18, 2012

Todd Park, the White House chief technology officer, spoke briefly at the conference and said that...“OSEHRA is catalyzing another ecosystem for open source software and health IT innovation that no closed system could do," Park said. "This is unbelievably cool."
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Open-Source Health Care Software

Adrian Gropper | Virtual Mentor | September 1, 2011

Software tools are yet another new technology competing for the attention of physicians. Medical software is evolving rapidly from a record-keeping tool to a communications system to a source of decision support and plays the role of a medical device or clinical service. Read More »

OpenVistA

OpenVista is an open source electronic health record (EHR) system developed by MedSphere Systems Corporation, based on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) VistA system. OpenVista supports the clinical workflow of hospitals and ambulatory care facilities through seven foundational applications

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Oroville Hospital CEO Outlines How VistA Can Help Hospitals Survive the HITECH Act and Obamacare

Press Release | Oroville Hospital | February 21, 2014

Robert Wentz, President and CEO of Oroville Hospital, was one of the keynote speakers at the 28th VistA Community Meeting (VCM) in Sacramento, CA. Wentz's presentation, titled “Obamacare: a provider's perspective. An opportunity for VistA and private sector Hospitals,” outlined the clear advantages of using the VistA EHR as the United States moves towards a new health system based on Obamacare...Wentz detailed in his presentation why VistA is the best option for private hospitals in the US that want to stay in business under the new rules created by Obamacare. Wentz described the major changes currently taking place in the healthcare industry as a result of Obamacare, both in terms of financial issues as well as patient/consumer side...Wentz laid out how Vista coupled with a reshaping of how care is delivered can sustains hospitals through the changes that Obamacare will bring to the healthcare system...

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Oroville Hospital Named One of the Winners of the VA Medical Appointment Scheduling Contest

Press Release | Oroville Hospital | October 4, 2013

Oroville Hospital was named one of the three winners of the innovation challenge issued by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to help the agency develop a new medical appointment scheduling application for its award-winning Electronic Health Record (EHR), VistA. Oroville was declared a winner based on the open source, web-based scheduling program it is currently developing and testing at its medical facilities in Oroville, California. Read More »

Oroville Hospital rolls out CPOE for their open source VistA Implementation

Press Release | Oroville Hospital | June 25, 2013

Oroville Hospital has gone live with CPOE on VistA, the open source EHR developed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Read More »

Oroville Hospital's EHR Implementation Cost Well Under Industry Average

Press Release | Oroville Hospital | January 23, 2013

CEO Robert Wentz addresses VistA Community Meeting in Sacramento where he updated the audience on the latest developments of their open source VistA implementation as well as detailed cost data. Read More »