VistA Community News

See the following -

Pentagon’s Electronic Health Record Not Ready for Initial Use Until 2017

Bob Brewin | NextGov | November 19, 2013

The Defense Department will not start deploying its modernized electronic health record until 2017, nine years after President Obama called on the Pentagon and the Veterans Affairs Department to develop a joint EHR. Read More »

Petition to have DoD adopt the EHR used by the VA posted on the White House web site

Members of the WorldVistA organization have just posted a petition at the "We The People" White House website asking for President Barack Obama to instruct the Department of Defense (DoD) to quit dragging their feet and adopt the world-renowned electronic health record system (EHR) developed and successfully deployed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) over the past 35 years. Read More »

Proprietary vs. Open Source VA and DoD Health IT – Again

Tom Munnecke | Tom Munnecke's Eclectica | March 22, 2011

I was quoted in Bob Brewin’s today, Wisconsin reps try to derail VA/Defense open source health records system.  This is an age-old story with DHCP and VistA, and it goes back even farther to Ted O’Neill’s early HEW funding of medical informatics research.

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Ramsey County Mental Health Center Announces Go Live of DSS, Inc.’s Fully Integrated EHR System

Press Release | DSS, Inc. | February 22, 2011

Ramsey County Mental Health Center, a St. Paul, Minn., facility serving individuals with mental and behavioral health disorders, today announced the go-live of a fully integrated electronic health records (EHR) system from DSS, Inc., a provider of software, support and development of vxVistA. Read More »

Red Hat Wins VA Medical Appointment Scheduling Challenge as Part of HP Open Community Team

Press Release | Red Hat | November 19, 2013

Red Hat, Inc...today announced it was selected, as part of the HP Open Community team, as an award winner in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Appointment Scheduling Challenge. The contest was designed to challenge software developers to create new systems that schedule appointments in the VA’s nationwide health system.

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RFI & RFP to be issued for VA/DoD iEHR software modules

Stephen Hufnagel | OEHRA News | June 4, 2012

CALL FOR INTEREST & PARTICIPATION: The VA/DoD Integrated Elctronic Health Rcord (iEHR) program will be issuing Requests for Information (RFIs) in June on Laboratory, Pharmacy and Immunization. Requests for Proposals (RFPs) will be issues around labor day. Immunization Management seems to be a perfect opportunity for the Open Source Community, including interested VA developers, to come together with repurposed VistA, CHCS and other Open Source alternatives to a purely commercial solution to iEHR capabilities/ applications. Read More »

RFP to Open Source VA VistA

The VA has released a draft RFP to create a new open source project around their electronic health record (EHR) system known as VistA. This is a landmark event for both the VA and the open source community. The need for cheap and robust EHR systems is clear, and the VA has one of the leading platforms out there. Stay tuned. Read More »

Roche Launches EMR Interface for VA to Facilitate Diabetes Management

Press Release | Dawning Technologies, Inc., Roche, Diabetes and the VA | April 18, 2011

Roche announced today that it has introduced a new Electronic Medical Record (EMR) interface for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that helps VA healthcare facilities improve their efficiency and accuracy by transmitting patient diabetes management data directly into the VistA computerized patient record system (CPRS).

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RPMS & VistA in Hawaii and across the Pacific Rim

Over the years, Hawaii has given rise to a number of notable individuals and organizations that have played a key role in collaboratively developing and implementing innovative ‘open’ health IT initiatives. Here's a quick update on some of the latest activities related to the implementation of the open source VistA and RPMS electronic health record (EHR) systems in both the state of Hawaii and other island nations and territories across the Pacific rim. Read More »

Shinseki and Gates clinch deal on common health record

Bob Brewin | NextGov | March 31, 2011

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said Thursday he and Defense Secretary Robert Gates agreed on March 17 that their departments would develop a 'common' electronic health record (EHR) system. A former high-ranking federal health information technology official, who declined to be identified, said the agreement ultimately could save the two departments billions of dollars in development and maintenance costs.

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State Veterans Homes Using the VistA System

Peter Groen & Christine Sheehy | Healthcare Informatics | March 1, 2006

In October 2003, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Under Secretary for Health issued guidance to its healthcare facilities across the country on a nationwide initiative to make the VA Veterans Health Information Systems & Technology Architecture (VistA) and Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS) available for use by all interested state veterans homes. Read More »

Stilwell Memorial Hospital Selects OpenVista

Press Release | Medsphere, Stilwell Memorial Hospital | May 8, 2012

Medsphere Systems Corporation...today announced that Oklahoma’s Stilwell Memorial Hospital has selected the OpenVista®  EHR system for implementation. The community medical center will take advantage of OpenVista's flexibility and comprehensive clinical support, as well as Medsphere’s rapid implementation process and clinical transformation services, to affordably improve care and secure the maximum federal stimulus reimbursement.

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The Rise of Open-Source Electronic Health Records

Paul C Webster | The Lancet | May 14, 2011

Several developing nations are joining the revolution in electronic health records to improve efficiency in their health systems, but at a fraction of the usual cost. Luisa Sanchez-Garcia's praise for the VistA electronic medical record (EMR) system in the neonatal ward at the Centro Médico Nacional la Raza, a massive hospital complex in Mexico City, Mexico, is glowing.  Read More »

The use of open source Electronic Health Records within the federal safety net

A recent study published by the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association (JAMIA), examined the "Use of Open Source Electronic Health Records within the Federal Safety Net." Read More »

The VA Is Thinking About an Open Source EHR

Bob Mehling | Medsphere.com | March 16, 2011

Fedscoop published a blog from VA CTO, Peter Levin and Lauren Bailey, on the topic of Open Source EHRs. Having followed and participated in this long journey, it is rewarding to see the clear progression over the last one and half years towards what will ultimately be a massive, perhaps the largest ever, open source project. The progression and acceleration in the VA's, largely Roger Baker's thinking on open source is evident.  According to them, it is clear the VA is using all outlets to prepare, explain and educate the public on its thinking about open source and modernization.

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