Dear All, One of the entertaining -- and maddening -- characteristics of the open software arena is that it on one hand permits people distributed in space and time to cooperate constructively and efficiently while on the other hand it makes it easy for people with essentially similar goals to energetically fork projects and ideas (inefficiently).
As you may know, the US bureaucracy managing Medicare is launching a massive campaign to promote primary care office-based HIT (healthcare information technology, not assault). This effort includes yet another VistA effort (sigh) which as far as I know is developmentally independent of all other efforts to bring VistA into the office arena. However, as scripture says, "he that is not against us is for us" and I surely hope this optimistic mantra is correct here. Quoting a recent journal, "The VA and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) plan to release a version of VistA tailored to medical practices in mid-2005. The new software, VistAOffice EHR, will be released into the public domain." Barbara Boykin is chairman of the VistA Software Alliance. (I am so glad that the VSA accepts the traditional meaning of "man" as hu-man and not "male". It just makes the English so much less Gordian.) The web site is: http://www.vistasoftware.org/ This organization has a nine--member BOD; the "founding board members" are Document Storage Systems, Inc, Hewlett-Packard, InterSystems Corp, Medical Alliances, Inc., Medsphere Systems Corp (a friendly face, eh?), Oleen Healthcare Info. Mgt., Perot Systems Corp., and Sea Island Systems (another friendly face). Beginning Oct 1, 2004, CMS will begin an intense effort to interest primary care docs in adopting HIT through the state PROs (professional review organizations, the non-profit, physician-led corporations that for about 30 years have contracted with CMS, the agency formerly known as HCFA, to fulfill Medicare's legal obligation to review health care quality. Each PRO will be required to constructively aid physician offices in choosing and installing HIT systems during the 8th Scope of Work, which runs from 1 October 2005 through 30 September 2007, and will be graded on the number of offices successfully implementing systems. (I speak as a trustee of the Wisconsin PRO.) Whether we are frustrated or thrilled by the details of this effort, it *is* an opportunity to encourage the development and use of publicly available, licence-free software in the physician offices of the US. Best wishes for a pleasant and peaceful finale to 2004. Dan Johnson md Menomonie, WI
