Your assessment is encouraging. But it means that the non-VA is going to have to develop an open weeldescribed posture of how it will apply Zachman's principles to the adaptation of VistA to the transforminh elathcare environment. The recent book by Demetriades, Kolodner and an Chrisdtopherson Eds on "Person-Centered Health Records: Towards HeaslthePeople" clearly identifies the need internationally to have a common conceptual information model that will be the basis for evaluating the current VistA architecture and planning the evolution of new configurations that are consistent and interoperable with other implementations of the common model.
I would urge that Cameron and other who may be in Salt lake City this week attend the ASTM E-31 standards meetings held in conjunction with the TEPR meeting. The standards from E-31 deal with the conceptual content that will become part of the broad common model (the effort to document such a model began 10 years ago but became infected with a virus that prevented common dialog) where discussions will take place about the "collaborative efforts" that the Secty HHS (a former Utah Governor) strongly advocates. If the hardhats master the implications of these standards, they can actively develop a a Zachman Framework that can complement that of the VA and perhaps even help it along but working actively with the various professional disciplines. Work with those disciplines can yield common targets for the various industrial suppliers of healthcare enterprise information architecture components that will produce the capabilities that are alluded to in this book. Hardhats should take Richard Davis' paper and develop an updated version applicable to the needs of the "VistA Adaptation" situation and develop a general "Enterprise Architecture Planning" template for the VistA Adaptation Process leading to "Enterprise View, Life Cycle Principles" reflected in the CMU-SEI Report on the VA and then educate the VSA members how to make best use of it with potential Acquirers.
This approach will have international appeal and be applicable to both Canada and Australia (noted in the book) where potential information enginering professionals are already active with their healthcare communities. Here in
the US the VistA Community is in a position to have a similar relationship with the engineering community if it outwardly works with the CMU-SEI on the principles it advocates for the VA. There is lots of work to do with respect to this direction but the VistA Community has bioth the talent and the key attitudinal mindset to rise to the challenge while others "Wait for Godot".
Thanks Cameron for the insight and, while working on this challenge, we await further insights that will contribute to achiving the VIsion.
On Fri, 6 May 2005, Cameron Schlehuber wrote:
I believe management and the VHA architects understand the Zachman Framework quite well. And while it may not be used 100%, I sincerely doubt there is any kind of willful ignorance of the broad picture.
If VistA were an ecosystem it would be like Yellowstone when the wolves were removed some 70 years ago ... the culture of VistA can sometimes seem dangerous and will sometimes eat your favorite offspring (or code, rotten as it was ;). But that culture (and to a large extent the M technology that supports it so well) like the wolves of Yellowstone is crucial to the overall ecological balance. The folks who removed the wolves were by and large well meaning (it's what the surrounding culture demanded, people and property were paramount). We know better today ... and wolves are back keeping grazing animals in check, and trees and shrubs and all the flora and fauna that depend on protective cover are now beginning to thrive again. Half a dozen years ago Gartner declared that MUMPS was a dying technology. Today Gartner (different people though) recognize M as a thriving market able to work with new technologies with the best of them.
A hard thing for any leader to do is admit that earlier direction they may have given wasn't entirely accurate. And even harder is to stick to one's principles when everyone around you is telling you to abandon those principles because the direction has to change due to facts.
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of A. Forrey Sent: Friday, May 06, 2005 3:43 PM To: hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: RE: [Hardhats-members] VA Aims To Build Congress' Faith In Tech Upgrade
Cameron: How do you think the "New Management" reacts to the use of the Zachman principles (otherwise known as Eanterprise Architecture Planning) that Principi mandated before he left. How can such wilful ignorance of the broad picture endure if the "management" is to respond to the CMU-SEI criticisms? Reasonable mastery of EAP would understand the state of the Technical Infrastructure unless willful ignorance prevails as it did during the Gnomes of Darkness days 25 yrs ago.
On Fri, 6 May 2005, Cameron Schlehuber wrote:
wasThat article certainly points to the risks of adding on applications to a legacy system. And if you never change the legacy system the kind of consequences described are inevitable. The design and culture of VistAdon'tto always be changing the "legacy" (after all, the minute a project is finished and the product deployed, it becomes "legacy"). That kind of change takes constant effort ... which means resources for things thatalways appear on the surface to have any immediate benefit. Shut downthatscheduling,culture and process and VistA ends up looking just like the problem Comair had ... so it shouldn't really come as any surprise how new management now feels about VistA ... the earlier decisions were self-fulfilling.
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Joseph Dal Molin Sent: Friday, May 06, 2005 2:54 PM To: hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [Hardhats-members] VA Aims To Build Congress' Faith In Tech Upgrade
Here is a timely article from CIO magazine on the risk and consquences of neglecting a mission critical system while waiting for something better......
http://www.cio.com/archive/050105/comair.html
"Bound To Fail" The crash of a critical legacy system at Comair is a classic risk management mistake that cost the airline $20 million and badly damaged its reputation.
J.
Cameron Schlehuber wrote:That VistA needs to continue to undergo change should be a given. Priortoa dozen years ago applications and services were retooled every few yearsorless. That was deemed to be too "costly" for things like lab,4etc. CPRS continued to be retooled to some extent (but "OrderEntry/ResultsstuffReporting" has been stuck on "version 3" since December 1997). Halt retooling for most parts and they'll certainly be "old". Is there newinin VistA? Yes, but that doesn't change the things that are indeed old. Much retooling could be done to considerably reduce maintenance costs andfact test the Service Oriented Architecture (M supports it well in fact)ina more gradual manner that would engender far less risk than turning our collective backs on VistA entirely.
But "based on proprietary technology"? That's a howler.
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Joseph Dal Molin Sent: Friday, May 06, 2005 1:50 PM To: hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [Hardhats-members] VA Aims To Build Congress' Faith In Tech Upgrade
"VistA is a solid system, but it's old, too expensive to maintain and based on proprietary technology, McFarland said. HealtheVet, he said, will be built on commercially available systems and therefore be able to interact with other platforms in the VA's inventory."
This quote cannot be accurate....it might be if it was Dubya that was being quoted....the inaccuracies are breathtaking. Perhaps I'm getting too old to maintain and my reasoning is starting to fail....and everything I have read about VistA for the last 10 years is wrong.....
J.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Taken from the National VA News Summary. http://vaww.newslink.va.gov/summary/2005/05-05-05.pdf TBO=Tampa Bay Online)
TBO News, 5/4/05 VA Aims To Build Congress' Faith In Tech Upgrade By RICHARD LARDNER
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