There is an interesting discussion on Slashdot’s front page about the NHII…

This is an in-depth, eye opening article that discusses the Veterans Administration (VA) healthcare system and its ascent to the highest quality healthcare system, both public and private, available in the US. Prominently featured is the public-domain VistA software system and how integral it is to improving healthcare quality. It contrasts the VA with what is available in the public sector and finding the public sector lacking. Thanks to Francis Gilbert for this link.

The next VistA community meeting will be held on the campus of Rice University in Houston, Texas, USA March 11-14th. Additional information can be found on the WorldVistA site.

Registration for the VistA Community Meeting in Greenbelt, MD — Oct. 21~24 is now available on the WorldVistA web site.

The meeting page has been updated with a link to the registration form near the top and links to hotels, restaurants, etc. near the bottom.

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Thanks to Nancy Anthracite for this information: Use of VA’s Electronic Health Records Expanding July 23, 2004
WASHINGTON – One of the world’s most sophisticated systems for keeping
electronic health records will soon be easily available to doctors,
hospitals and clinics around the country, courtesy of the Department of
Veterans Affairs (VA) and the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid
Services. “VA is proud to lead the health care industry in the use of
information technology. The expertise we have gained, however, belongs to
the American public,” said Dr. Jonathan Perlin, VA’s Acting Under Secretary
for Health. “With our federal partners, we’re making it easier for the
private-sector health care industry to make use of this electronic system
for health care records.” The system, called VistA-Office Electronic Health
Record, was developed by VA. A version of VistA is used at more than 1,300
VA facilities throughout the United States to maintain records on 5 million
veterans who receive their health care from VA. Under the plan announced
today, private-sector health care providers can obtain a version of VistA at
nominal cost. Distribution of the software is expected to begin in late
2005. VistA offers health care providers a complete electronic record
covering all aspects of patient care, including reminders for preventive
health care, electronic entry of pharmaceutical orders, display of
laboratory results, consultation requests, x-rays and pathology slides.
Besides the VA system, VistA is currently used by the Department of Health
for the District of Columbia, plus health care systems in Finland, Germany,
Egypt and Nigeria. People wishing to receive e-mail from VA with the
latest news releases and updated fact sheets can subscribe at the following
Internet address: http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel/opalist_listserv.cfm

Past recipient of the Linux Medical News Achievement Award KS Bhaskar wrote on the hardhats list: ‘On Tuesday, July 20, Oleen Healthcare in Silver Spring, MD, hosted a meeting of a number of VistA related vendors (see organization list below) and WorldVistA to discuss how WorldVistA and VistA vendors could collaborate better, whether and how WorldVistA (a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation could accommodate vendor participation, etc.)…One of my action items from the meeting was to create a Yahoogroups list for the vendors to carry out discussions, and I have created a group called vista-vendors. So e-mail to vista-vendors@yahoogroups.com will go to all registered there, and will be archived for the future…’ The list of vendors and groups attending was impressive and included: Document Storage Systems, Fidelity Information Services, Global Technologies, Hewlett-Packard, InterSystems, Medical Alliances, Medsphere, Oleen Healthcare, Perot Systems, Sea Island Systems, WorldVistA

Houston, Texas: Executive Software Systems, Inc. (ESSI), a
leader in VistA development and implementation outside the Veterans Administration, announces a successful implementation of Free/Open Source VistA medical information software in a family practice outpatient clinic. The implementation has had no downtime since May 2004 when it was introduced to the Spring Branch Community Health Center (SBCHC) established by Dr. Patrick McColloster. Dr.McColloster has stated that the software is very successful for SBCHC. The recently opened Spring Branch Community Health Center Dedication is scheduled for June 30, 2004 at 7:00 p.m. at its location on the corner of Kempwood and Blalock, Houston, Texas.

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June 14, 2004 — The Veterans Health Administration is working with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on a project to offer the benefits of electronic medical records to other providers, Federal Telemedicine News reports. VistA-Lite, a version of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ VistA system that incorporates EHRs and computerized physician order entry, will be updated to meet the practice needs and financial considerations of outside clinics and physician offices. Thanks to David Derauf for this article.

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Great article in the Star about the eHealth Asia conference and OSS. The article quotes from Rick Marshall and Dr. Molly Cheah: “Studies have shown that about 85% of software development projects fail due to late completion, cost overruns and non-delivery of all promised features,” said Marshall. “However VistA succeeded in becoming the largest hospital management system in the world. It is currently used by over 10,000 users in hospitals and clinics worldwide, including 170 veterans hospitals,”

We are reporting live from the 9th annual VistA community meeting on the campus of Rice University in Houston, Texas. According to WorldVistA President Rick Marshall, this meeting originally grew from the need for the people inside the Veterans Administration and outside the Veterans Administration to get together to talk about VistA. It has grown into much more than that since then to include the group that is creating a completely free/open-source stack of the Veterans Administration VistA healthcare software collectively called OpenVistA. More developments as they occur.