Medsphere and Tolven announced (article here) at the annual HIMSS show that they will form a new partnership to “Surround, Supplement, and Renew” VistA as a viable platform for forward thinking health care organizations. The announcement is loaded with buzz-words, but a close read implies that Medsphere is attempting to reach out to other providers to include them in their currently non-existent ecosystem.

This has potentially very interesting ramifications for VistA which has been languishing for nearly a decade. I believe it is a race to save the patient with renewed and collective investment versus being overwhelmed into irrelevance by the blistering pace of other, newer technology. This should be a STAT! page to the entire VistA community that more effective collaboration will be required to save this valiant trialblazer.