Abstract
TO: Organizers, Open Source in Healthcare and Public Health FR: Stanley Saiki, M.D. DT: 10 January 2003 RE: Proposal for Presentation at Open Source in Healthcare and Public Health, Open Source for National and Local eGovernment Programs in the US and EU The Pacific Telehealth and Technology Hui is a joint venture between the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Our mission is to develop telehealth projects throughout the Pacific region and to transfer technology to other public and private organizations. For more information, please refer to: www.pacifichui.org/ The publication "Leadership by Example: Coordinating Government Roles in Improving Healthcare Quality" (published by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies) states: "VHA (Veterans Health Administration) and DOD (Department of Defense) have made noteworthy strides in establishing a clinical information infrastructure, and the ability of their programs to measure and improve quality through continuous feedback and the application of computerized decision support systems is superior to what is typically found in the private sector." They go on to state: "The three government programs that provide services directly -- the VHA, DOD TRICARE and HIS programs -- have led the way in building clinical information systems to support care delivery, quality improvement, surveillance and monitoring, and many other applications. Since taxpayer dollars have financed the development of these systems, more should be done to facilitate their application in other parts of the healthcare system.-- We would like to share the experience we've gained in open source technology transfer. We are spearheading the transfer of the VistA system developed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to non-VA healthcare providers. VistA is a fully integrated, hospital-wide information system. It is currently made available to the general public under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Our ultimate objective is to create a self-sustaining open source ecosystem that can support the spread of VistA worldwide. The first step on this path was the deployment of a version of VistA at the 200-bed Lyndon B. Johnson Tropical Medical Center in American Samoa. The next step was to port VistA to a completely open source stack of Linux and GT.M Mumps. Previously, VistA was only available on a proprietary platform of Microsoft Windows and Mumps. Version 1.0 of Open Source VistA is near completion. Now we are looking at ways to bring this initiative to critical mass. We would like to share the experiences we have gained in attempting to create a self-sustaining open source ecosystem that can support the spread of Open Source VistA worldwide. We think that this is a very interesting topic as it highlights the issues faced by anyone attempting to create a market and industry for open source products in the healthcare space. I will close my presentation by discussing opportunities such as data warehousing that will be created by the diffusion of Open Source VistA. Title: Technology Transfer of Open Source VistA -- Creating a Medical Informatics Collaborative Outline: 1. Introduction -- The Mandate: Leadership by Example -- Coordinating Government Roles in Improving Healthcare Quality (Institute of Medicine of the National Academies) 2. VistA and the Hui -- What is VistA? -- VistA history -- The Role and Vision of the Hui 3. The Lyndon B. Johnson Tropical Medical Center Pilot Project 4. Producing Version 1.0 of Open Source VistA -- Product features -- Organization -- Results -- Lessons learned -- project management, golden master/version control 5. Creating a Medical Informatics Collaborative -- Product (features, tools, documentation) -- Process (version control, requirements management, code base management) -- Development community -- System integrators -- Customers 6. The Future -- Data Warehousing -- CORBA -- DoD integration LIVE DEMO |
