Is there not one standalone community clinic that is currently running VistA?
David ----- Original Message ----- From: "Wayne Wilson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, January 07, 2003 8:27 AM Subject: Different niches and the role of training ( was Re: Sherlock Holmes) > Dr. David H Chan wrote: > > > John, can you recommend me to community practices you know who have > > successfully deployed VistA as an EMR? I would very much love to learn > > from > > them and see if VistA has a role to play in Canada. > > > > > I think it's important to think about the relative context of how these > systems are installed, supported and used. > While some family practice or GP are operationally connected with large > health care organizations and thus can use the systems deployed by those > organizations (which includes the services of a multi-person > professional IT staff), many, if not the majority, are not so connected. > > This is indeed the challenge for VISTA, which has a heritage in the > large entity world. Can it make or even should it make the transition? > That is to say, maybe VISTA fulfills a different niche. Seen in this > light, John is right, there is nothing close to it available in the open > source world, and maybe there will never be anything close to it. It's > a relatively small market with high costs. > > Small practice's on the other hand, assuming they stay small and > independent would be another niche, and that niche seems to be where a > lot of the action is in open source medical systems. (A much larger > market) > > Another very viable niche is in public health (analysis, warning, > reporting, registries, etc.). (A small market again, so maybe only one > OSS option?) > > All of these niche's need to interchange information with each other, > albeit with different aims in mind and different privacy and security > issues to be resolved. However, this interchange could and probably > should be de-coupled from the actual systems. > > The other valuable observation that has been made in these discussions, > one that can be capitalized on, is the opportunity to provide a more > relevant training experience. Someone associated with the AAMC commons > activity mentioned to me at the OSHCA conference that most family > practice (and GP's I would assume) get trained in a hospital > organization but eventually practice in a much smaller organization. > The kinds of systems they train on are rarely available for use once > they move on to their career. That creates a huge opportunity (and > challenge) for academic medical centers to take on the task of training > folks on the kinds of systems they are likely to be using. >
