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VistA® News
Editor, Roger A. Maduro, LxIS
July 18, 2006. Vol. 1, No. 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Commentary
News
* VA Honored As Innovator For Medical Records: Paperless System Brings
Agency
$100,000 Prize
* VA health care chief to leave government
* The Best Medical Care In The U.S: How Veterans Affairs transformed
itself --
and what it means for the rest of us
* Technology has transformed the VA
* VistA users from Mexico steal show at WorldVistA conference
* England's healthcare IT project mired in delays
* Texas Tech Health Sciences Center Selects DSS, Inc. to Implement VistA
* VA-LSU partnership advances toward New Orleans hospital
* Federal health services choose VA imaging standard
* DOD to adopt VA medical imaging system
* Bridging the gap: The VA and DOD are delivering a real-world example of
cross-agency electronic health records sharing
Events
Resources
Editorial Policy Statement
Subscription and Contact Information
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INTRODUCTION
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Welcome to the inaugural issue of VistA® News. I have been a strong advocate
of the need for a newsletter that brings together news and views across the
wide and growing spectrum of communities of interest in the transformation of
VistA® – the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture
– from being primarily an in-house application/platform that runs all the
medical facilities of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs to
becoming the platform of choice for electronic medical and health records for
the rest of the world. With encouragement from many, I have started this
publication to provide the VistA® community with news and updates. Your
comments, suggestions, and news items are sought, and are always welcome.
-Roger A. Maduro
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COMMENTARY
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The last three weeks have been very significant for VistA®. There are four
major stories featured in this issue of VistA® News. The first is the
decision by Harvard University to honor the Department of Veterans Affairs
and the VistA® system with its Innovation in Government Award. Second is a
series of articles on the great medical care provided at VA hospitals and the
role that VistA® has played in this success. Third is a report on the 13th
VistA Community Meeting held at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, PA,
June 28-July2. The fourth centers on the increasing collaboration between the
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) on
health IT issues.
The VA is one of only seven recipients of the Innovation in Government Award
given annually by Harvard University's Ash Institute For Democratic
Governance and Innovation. More than 1,000 government programs competed for
the award. The VA has created a web site to handle the inquiries from the
story as well as to provide more in depth information on VistA®
www.innovations.va.gov. There is an excellent video of VistA® on the web
site as well as more extensive background information. This news, however, is
tempered by the announcement that VHA Undersecretary, Dr. Jonathan Perlin,
will step down from his position for a job in the private sector. Dr. Perlin
has been one of the major driving forces in recent years behind the success
of the Veterans Health Administration and VistA® system and he will be
greatly missed.
Shortly after the Harvard University announcement Business Week published a
feature story on the VA and VistA® titled The Best Medical Care In The U.S:
How Veterans Affairs transformed itself -- and what it means for the rest of
us by Catherine Arnst. Available in the July 17 print edition, and through
their web site, this is one of the best documented stories in the press. If
reading the web version of the story, make sure to look at the graphics. The
hyperlinks are hard to find but the data tables are worth the effort. In
addition to this feature story, we also cite an earlier story on VistA® that
appeared in the May 15 issue of Fortune magazine.
We also have one article that is a cautionary tale. It's from Healthcare IT
News on the problems that Britain's National Health Service (NHS) is having
developing a national electronic health record. The $11.7 billion project is
reportedly in serious trouble and many industry experts are publicly warning
that it may end up as the greatest failure of an IT project in history. The
curious thing is that the functionality that NHS is paying billions of
dollars to develop in England, is only a subset of the functionality that
already exists in VistA®. For a fraction of the money they have already
spent, NHS could have implemented
