Hello Kin, I remember your name from discussions regarding CoSTAR (Computer Stored Ambulatory Record) on the old MUMPS list (and I think comp.lang.mumps). I actually learned MUMPS by reading the public domain sources for CoSTAR 24 years ago since the original plan for building our HIS (that eventually became VMACS) was to modify CoSTAR to the purpose!
I remember that CoSTAR embodied quite a few good ideas at the time and the source code had the imprint of many hands that I understood to be successive generations of computer science grad students. Do you still have any of the code? I would like to have a copy of it for old time sake if possible. Is anyone still using CoSTAR? If so, then I would think that there could be some fruitful discussion comparing features of the CoSTAR EHR compared to that of VistA and other current alternatives. Before we decided to build our HIS on Fileman, we used Fileman to augment CoSTAR in places where we needed to define data that was not specifically patient oriented, like laboratory procedures. I remember that a key analogy for me at the time was that CoSTAR was like an oak tree that had grown to maturity in a rather different environment from the one to which we wanted to transplant it and Fileman was like an acorn from which we could grow a new tree better suited to our needs. Similarly, VistA is like a mature tree grown from the Fileman acorn. A major reason why we rejected CoSTAR for the VMTH was that it was too patient centric for a hospital information system. I imagine that for smaller practices and clinics, a major difficulty with VistA would be the reverse of that. Kin Ho wrote: > >Hi Nancy: > >Just beginning to explore the Vist/CPRS,... >Regards >Kin >604-222.9348 >www.mscostar.com --------------------------------------- Jim Self Systems Architect, Lead Developer VMTH Computer Services, UC Davis (http://www.vmth.ucdavis.edu/us/jaself) ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: Power Architecture Resource Center: Free content, downloads, discussions, and more. http://solutions.newsforge.com/ibmarch.tmpl _______________________________________________ Hardhats-members mailing list Hardhats-members@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hardhats-members
