Re: Will VistA be dashed on the rocks?

[Nancy Anthracite]

http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/dod-and-va-back-down-iehr-
development/2013-02-06?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Looks like one extremely expensive failure has been averted. Next step is to
get the DOD to see the light that buying Epic is going to be extremely
expensive "solution" when a cost effective solution has been offered to them
by the VA and asked for by their own personnel.

Can cost savings and common sense win over lobbying and Not Invented Here? If
the DOD needs to have a contract to install an EHR, make it with companies
that will install VistA for them and call it iEHR if that will help. And then
give open source iEHR more than lip service and really participate in joint
projects facilitated by OSEHRA to get the DOD the added functionality that
they need the smart way.

I hope you will all forgive my posting this to Hardhats and take any comments
in response to this to Vi...@googlegroups.com.

--
Nancy Anthracite

On Tuesday, October 23, 2012, Nancy Anthracite wrote:
> I, along with over 300 others, many new to the world of VistA, attended the
> first annual OSEHRA conference and heard the disturbing presentation about
> iEHR and the plan to have iEHR virtually supplant VistA leaving VistA as a
> complete, open source system mostly in a pile on the cutting room floor.
> In the view of the speaker, a few pieces of VistA could potentially used
> in this new, largely closed source, system of services that would become
> the iEHR for the DOD and VA.
>
> It became crystal clear what the plan was for VistA after I asked the
> question about the role of VistA in iEHR and it was so clearly answered.
> As I sat down to the table after that shocking revelation, I heard someone
> say, "Why are we here?"
>
> I think that question could be asked by virtually everyone at the
> conference with their various hats. Some were there looking to sell their
> services or products for use with VistA, particularly looking for the
> potential for government contracts. Some were there because they use
> VistA. Some were there because they develop for VistA inside of the VA or
> they manage the relationship with OSEHRA. Some were there because they
> already implement and support VistA for business reasons and some of us
> were there because we know VistA is a great thing and is used to improve
> the lives of people around the world. Were the reasons they were there at
> the conference now irrelevant? Some were there because they have great
> ideas for ways to use their creations to improve and help the users of
> VistA. Were their hopes and plans now meaningless and useless? Are they
> on the cutting room floor as well? Is the VA going to abandon VistA and
> does OSEHRA collapse like a house of cards?
>
> To many at the meeting, VistA may be new to you. OSEHRA made it possible
> for you to see what had been right there all along but largely ignored.
> For some of us it is the 30 plus year story of the passion of many to do
> great things.
>
> For some, like me, it is a much shorter story but nonetheless, a no less
> passionate one.
>
> You should also know this is not the first chapter in the history of the
> attempts to destroy VistA. Attempts go all the way back to its near
> beginnings when there was an arson attempt to destroy it. None of these
> attempts so far have succeeded and frankly, some of them looked like they
> had a lot more probability of succeeding than this iEHR plan.
>
> VistA is not going to go away just because government contracts go away.
> It is being adopted around the world and it may become harder to do the
> things that need to be done to maintain it and move it forward, but it
> will not die.
>
> Whether or not you feel in your view of it you fit into this moving forward
> is up to you to decide. If OSEHRA is not swept aside by iEHR or politics,
> it may become a major force in seeing that VistA moves forward more quickly
> with more support. It would certainly provide a lot easier way to
> coordinate efforts to move VistA forward, but it is not the only way
> forward.
>
> I am sure there are those out there who will benefit from the funds that
> will be thrown at iEHR over the next few years, but keep in mind when you
> do, that there is VistA and it will still be there and maybe you could have
> a role to play in that scenario which would be more likely to be sustained
> over the long term than iEHR.
>
> The established VistA Community will be attending its 26th VistA Community
> Meeting in January. The VistA Community meetings are actually a relatively
> new thing compared the long and illustrious career of VistA, but there have
> been 25 of them where people meet that have been contributing to
> sustaining, modernizing and improving VistA (and VistA derivatives) for
> many years and helping to increase adoption of VistA outside of the VA.
> The momentum for the adoption of VistA has been growing independently of
> OSEHRA and the VA, so even if the VA abandons VistA and OSEHRA falls by
> the wayside, VistA will survive.
>
> The education community has also now learned the benefit of open source and
> VistA. The momentum to use it in education is growing. Out of that I
> expect a wave of young blood with forward looking ideas to join our
> community.
>
> Business certainly has a role in all of this and business can help make it
> happen faster and better. The users of VistA can tell you the advantages
> of open source, just like Robert Wentz did, and they are spreading the
> word. The users of VistA worldwide outside of the US can also tell you.
> Ask the Jordanians and the three hospital systems in India.
>
> I am hopeful that efforts will continue inside of the VA as well, but we
> will be waiting for those inside of the VA to join us if iEHR displaces
> them. Personally, I believe iEHR will be an extremely expensive failure and
> the sooner that the folly of it is recognized, the better for those of us
> who are tax payers and the better for VistA. Those resources could be so
> much better utilized to work to improve and modernize VistA to serve
> military, veteran, and civilian patient populations worldwide.
>
> --
> Nancy Anthracite

[George Timson]

Nancy suggests:
"... If the DOD needs to have a contract to install an EHR, make it with companies that will install VistA for them..."

Why does this suggestion seem familiar to me?  I guess it's because Marty Ivers, Joe Tatarczuk, Michael Distaso and I formed such a company a few years back... 28 years ago, to be precise.  "VistA" was "DHCP" then, of course.  The funny thing is that, teaming with SAIC, we actually succeeded in moving the MUMPS technology into the DoD hospitals.  As someone said, history repeats itself.

--George Timson