Open Source Community, below is a letter that you can personalize and post on the public comment website. It is very important that you do this, the policy and the press is on fire and our duty is to educate our policy makers.

2 things you must do to help:
Post your letter here: http://www.regulations.gov/search/Regs/home.html#submitComment?R=0900006480a7c4a8 And fax, email, or cal your representatives.

Below is the letter:

March 4, 2010

Dear Committee,

Mr. Bush and Mr. Obama have stated official support for the importance of EMR’s. Recent grant money created a rush of development by disparate corporations creating unique programs. This is costly to tax papers and the health community.

Programming and marketing hundreds of different EMR’s will not work. EMR’s should be viewed as an infrastructure similar to railroads, power lines, and water pipes.

Secondly, EMR’s must be robust, scalable, and proven. We run the risk of increased errors due to hasty implementation. Dr. Shuren director of FDA’s Center of Devices and Radiological Health recently said:

“The Food & Drug Administration has received 260 reports of health IT-related malfunctions with the potential for patient harm in the past two years, including 44 reported injuries and six reported deaths.”

The solution is simple, the VA’s system based on Vista. It is proven and because of open source licensing it can proliferate at a low cost. Given Medicare physician pay cuts, a poor economy, and the common sense that this is a public good requiring a unified infrastructure, please consider a business model by which Vista is the power lines and free marketing occurs through vendors, support, and training.

Yours truly,