Report calls for VA to continue on open-source track with VistA upgrade

As the Department of Veterans Affairs modernizes its successful but aging Veterans Health Information System and Technology Architecture (VistA) clinical system, an IT industry group is recommending that the department continue on its open-source track and offer the next version as an international standard for hospital EMRs.

The Industry Advisory Council, a group of 550 Washington-area technology companies that keeps an open dialogue with federal agencies, says the VA should stabilize the current version of VistA while the department develops a modernized system, following open-source and open-standards principles. The so-called VistA 2.0 should be managed by a not-for-profit foundation, the group suggests in a report to VA CIO Roger Baker.

"Through many hours of debate, compromise and collaboration, we not only produced a viable set of recommendations, but were unanimous in those recommendations," Ed Meagher, chairman of the IAC VistA Modernization Working Group, said at a press conference last week, NextGov reports. "That we recommended an open-source solution is a real game changer from the business-as-usual approach to systems development," added Meagher, a former VA deputy CIO.

The report calls for the VA to replicate the current VistA screen-by-screen and interface-by-interface, but on a more modern architecture, ans says the department should "harvest everything of value" from its proven system. The VA also should sponsor an open-source community to continue developing the software, the group says.

For more information:
- take a look at this NextGov article
- read the IAC report to the VA (.pdf)
- see this IAC press release (.pdf)

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