U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) secretary David Shulkin announced a major overhaul of the department's Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems.
The department will scrap its in-house developed EHR systems, known as VistA in favor of MHS GENESIS, the EHR system in use by the U.S. Department of Defense.
MHS GENESIS is based on the Cerner Millenium API. For those of you who will ask, no, Cerner Millenium is *not* open source.
VistA, the current DVA system was originally conceived as a "paperless" health records management system in the early 1970s, developed and implemented by DVA and other government agencies, both in the United States and in a number of other countries including Finland, Egypt and Germany. VistA is in the public domain
So what say you, Soylentils? Does it make sense to throw out decades of development on a platform both widely used and in the public domain? Should the government be doing its own software development?
Are you a government contractor doing software development? If so, how might this and/or similar actions affect you?
Other Coverage:
White House press briefing/announcement from Secretary Shulkin
Healthcare IT News
Defense One [behind script wall]
Kansas City Star
FCW
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Tuesday June 06 2017, @11:28PM (2 children)
The VA is totally fudged up and has been for some time, we can assume their software is no exception. That said, moving from an open system implementing an open API to a closed system and a closed API doesn't sound like a wonderful idea for the long term. On the other hand if they are adopting the same system in use at DoD and since the VA is taking 100% of their patients in from that system, there is a logic there. I'd in fact push to make it one unified system in that case and get some savings.
But we are talking about the Federal government here, why have a turf war over one system when you can build two at three times the price? (Two systems and an expensive custom gateway)
(Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday June 06 2017, @11:42PM (1 child)
What other country has the size of problem that the US Military does?
Agreed it seems logical to put the VA on the same system, assuming of course the the DOD system does work. (DOD has more hospitals in more places than the VA does).
Would the Service be the same if all Vets got health care where the rest of us got care?
I can't help thinking any modern big city or small city hospital would do a far better job, in a far more timely manor, in far more pleasant surroundings than any random VA hospital. What we have does not appear to be cheaper.
As long as the ride is free to the Vets, auditors are cheaper to hire than demoralized doctors and staff.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by jmorris on Wednesday June 07 2017, @02:04AM
Some of what the VA does probably should be their specialty. Civilian medicine doesn't see nearly as many of come injuries as the VA. But I'm all in favor of the proposals to allow any Vet who gets tired of sitting on a waiting list from going to a civilian hospital and letting the VA pick up the bill. Nothing shakes up a lethargic machine like fear of competition.