Hello Andrew, I have never considered myself a VistA expert, but I have been learning as time goes on about the system. I think that the use of "future-proof" is probably too high a standard to ask of VistA. The advanced informational systems concepts embodied by GEHR and OIO are clearly "clean-paper" designs compared to some base-line engineering that has been maturing since the '70s. IMHO, VistA is not "future-proof", but it is a stable, well-designed architecture that has held up reasonably well over the years.
I don't believe without a "clean-paper" design, ANY system can be "future-proof". What VistA offers is a complete hospital system that is stable and has been refined into a highly usable system. No other open-source medical software that I know of at this time is capable of running a hospital. If there was something else, then we might be able to a feature comparison but until then this is the only game in town. I hope that over time OIO and GEHR and others might be able to run a hospital and then the "best" system would be the one that meets our needs the closest. Todd Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -----Original Message----- From: Andrew Ho [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, August 09, 2002 11:14 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Vista Reference Models etc. On Fri, 9 Aug 2002 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Hi, > > You'll find the entity relationship diagrams here: > http://www.va.gov/vista/Software/ERdiagrams/ > > (but I don't think you'll like them Thomas) > > > Sean Hi Sean (and other Vista experts), It seems to me that there is an opportunity here to compare notes. Clearly, Vista takes a different approach from the "future-proof" architecture nicely described by Thomas in his paper (http://www.deepthought.com.au/it/archetypes/Output/front.html). Since Vista is poised to emerge from the VA in a big way, issues of schema customizability and extensibility will become much more important. Ultimately, whether Vista is "future-proof" will dictate its wider applicability, IMHO. If Vista is "future-proof" by Thomas' definition, I am sure Thomas may learn to like it. (If Thomas likes it, I know I will like it too :-). However, if Vista is not "future-proof", perhaps we can discuss how to make it "future-proof". (or why you don't think it is important). Best regards, Andrew --- Andrew P. Ho, M.D. OIO: Open Infrastructure for Outcomes www.TxOutcome.Org (Hosting OIO Library #1 and OSHCA Mirror #1)
