There is an article in Medical Economics about the possibilities of privatization of the Veterans Administration VistA software. It has some laughably erroneous quotes in it which are fortunately partly rebutted in the article such as: ‘…Mark R. Anderson, a consultant with the AC Group in Montgomery, TX, is skeptical that the VistA-Office EHR will be as inexpensive as CMS claims. The main problem, he says, is that it uses the MUMPS programming language, rather than Windows. Even though a Windows “front end” can be grafted onto the MUMPS system, making the screens look like Windows screens, a small business computer server can’t run the software, he says. “Any PC can access a MUMPS operating system. But who’s going to maintain that server with the MUMPS operating database? You’ve got to buy a big mainframe server that costs $50,000 to $100,000 to run the system.” VistA will also need special interfaces to outside applications that run on Windows, including practice management and laboratory systems, he maintains…’ Thanks to Kevin Toppenberg for this link.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that WorldVistA has been named ‘…as a vendor support organization to provide vendor training on the VistA-Office EHR….’ Aside from injecting much-needed funds into the Free and Open Source VistA software effort what does it all mean? Linux Medical News interviewed WorldVistA director Joseph Dal Molin about the announcement. The complete interview is below. The facts at a glance are: 1) Approximately $900,000 awarded for training VistA vendors. 2) The training will be free. 3) Training dates should begin in late August or early September and will be complete by January 2006. 4) Two training tracks will be available, one for those with no VistA experience and one for those with some experience. 5) Training locations will be announced but will likely be held once each in the East, Central and Western United States.

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According to an announcement on Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) website:
‘…CMS, through the Iowa Foundation for Medical Care as its contractor to support the VistA-Office EHR project, has established WorldVistA (link to www.worldvista.org) as a vendor support organization to provide vendor training on VistA-Office EHR. WorldVistA�s mission is to improve health by making medical software better and more affordable. WorldVistA, incorporated in 2002 as a nonprofit corporation will provide training sessions to vendors beginning in September 2005, shortly after version 1.0 is released to the public. WorldVistA will also convene conferences and establish a website where training information will be available…’ Thanks to Nancy Anthracite for the link. More information will follow as it occurs.

Editor’s note: Dan Johnson, MD is a distinguished member of the FOSS in medicine community. He holds the distinction of writing the earliest known ideas on the subject. Dan reports the following: First, this is not an “announcement,” in the sense of Grand Hoopla. It is news that a door is creaking open: The Wisconsin QIO (Quality Improvement Organization; formerly known as a PRO – Professional Review Organization), MetaStar (formerly known as
WIPRO), has internally committed to sponsoring a proper open-source distribution of VistA Office, the physician-office-ready version of VistA that is being prepared for August 1st release by CMS (the agency formerly known as HCFA).
What does this mean?

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According to this press release: ‘The Indian Health Service (IHS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has signed a memorandum of understanding to share the Resource and Patient
Management System (RPMS), a suite of applications which includes an electronic health record
(EHR), with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This transfer of technology
will be specifically used in NASA�s Office of the Chief Health and Medical Officer (OCHMO)…Over two years ago, NASA�s OCHMO
began a process of identifying a health management system for the Agency�s complex array of
occupations. Numerous health management systems in public and private sectors were extensively
reviewed. Based upon functionality, applicability, and cost, the IHS system best met NASA�s needs…’ This link courtesy of Joseph Dal Molin on the new openhealth list.

This post just in on the hardhats list: ‘Thursday, May 12th to Sunday, May 15th, WorldVistA is holding a small
technical meeting to verify, package, and release OpenVistA version 4.
Since this will be a technical meeting, it will not make a good venue
for those seeking an introduction to VistA, or looking for installs on
their laptops or discussion sessions, or even to socialize or make
plans. It will be an old-style, heads-down, hard-working meeting
focused on achieving results as efficiently as possible…’ Read More for the complete text of the announcement.

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As many as 98,000 people die each year as a result of preventable medical errors which Free and Open Source electronic medical records software could reduce. A contender in this area is the Veterans Administration (VA) public domain VistA codebase and large community. In a major advance for FOSS in medicine, Joseph Dal Molin of WorldVistA reports success in getting the VA Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS) VistA client running on Linux using WINE and Crossover office. The CPRS client formerly ran only on the Microsoft Windows operating system and is widely deployed on thousands of workstations within the United States VA system. Read more for details of this development and a screenshot.

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FCW.com is reporting: ‘The House Veterans Affairs Committee is recommending a $400 million cut in the proposed information technology budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs for fiscal 2006…The committee pointed to the failure of a $372 million financial management project called CoreFLS in Bay Pines, Fla., as an example of the VA�s technology problems… Thanks to Nancy Anthracite for this link.

Modern Physician (intrusive registration required) has an extensive article on VistA office electronic medical/health record deployments: ‘…VistA, which comprises more than 100 modules from radiology archiving to physician-order entry, is available from the VA for about $47 in copying costs under the Freedom of Information Act. Vista-Office EHR also will be available at little to no costs under FOIA, according to government officials. Who will distribute the final versions of the Vista-Office EHR software is unresolved, however, Wark said…’

Joseph Dal Molin writes: ‘Registration is now open for the WorldVistA community meeting….either follow the link at http://www.worldvista.org home page or go directly to the registration page by following
this link

Looking forward to meeting everyone at what promises to be another very
successful meeting.’ Per the website, The meeting will be held in Boston, Massachusetts April 7th to 10th, 2005. The conference will offer VistA tutorials, OpenVistA installs on laptops, OpenVistA programming projects, and setting WorldVistA’s strategy for 2005. Editor’s Note: VistA is a public domain electronic medical record developed by the Veterans Administration and is being privatized by numerous groups.