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.

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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