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DoD WON'T WAIT ON ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS
CHOICE -- There is a hint that DoD will try to
just create another,
bigger contract like the current one with
Northrup-Grumman,
only with a commercial vendor like Microsoft.
This is the latest in the DoD drama surrounding
getting an EMR (Electronic Medical Records) system that works.
DoD's current AHLTA system is a disaster.
VA's VistA system works.
So...DoD has toyed with adopting VistA, trying to
make VistA and AHLTA "talk" to each other, getting a new system...and, on
the story goes...
For a previous article on this mess (with
backlinks)...click here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfJUN08/nf061308-2.htm
Story here...
http://healthcare.zdnet.com/?p=1169
Story below:
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Military won’t wait on EMR choice
Posted by Dana Blankenhorn
The Military Health Service hopes to make a
decision next
week on an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system which could sunset
the VA’s open source VistA system.
The decision is being taken due to the continued
foundering of the military’s Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology
 Application
(AHLTA), a proprietary system
developed by Northrup-Grumman.
A Northrup-Grumman spokesman insisted to Bob
Brewin of Government Executive that an upgrade to their system is
now in beta test, and the company wants to keep control of AHLTA.
Dr. S. Ward Casscells, assistant secretary of Defense for
health affairs, and a former
cardiologist with the UT Health Science Center in Houston, said the
decision follows an
online town hall where many users called the present system
“intolerable.”
A
press release
from the military issued Monday insists no decision has been made but
says the service is being pressed by Congress toward a decision.
The author of that press release, Stephen Jones,
apparently responded to the Government Executive article by
writing “Using the current form of VistA or AHLTA will not work. Trying to
morph the two together will not work.”
Despite the failure of the proprietary system and
the continuing success of VistA, which spawned an
open source project and corporate
support group, Medsphere,
Casscells called VistA “antiquated technology.”
To some activists this is a hint the military
will try to just create another, bigger contract like the one with
Northrup-Grumman, only with a commercial vendor like Microsoft or Cerner,
folding VistA into it.
Cerner
won a contract to take
over computing for VA labs last year.
In his response to the Government Executive
article, Dr. Casscells also wrote:
Most experts tell us that the risks to
patients, and dollar costs, of replacing AHLTA with VISTA would be too
high, that there is not yet a plug-and-play commercial system that we
could buy. So we may well end up trying to upgrade both VistA and AHLTA
in coordination, aiming at convergence but at least assuring
increasingly detailed and reliable 2-way exchange of data, to the point
of real interoperability. The final product is not likely to be very
similar to today’s VistA or AHLTA, but most clinicians like the look and
ease of the VistA GUI.
All this reads like a decision to sunset VistA
has been made. Is anyone in Congress willing to get in front of the
decision train?
The article also indicates the military wants to
talk to Google about its
Personal Health Record (PHR) system before making a final recommendation.
If the company really wants to
fly the open source
flag it will give the military a piece of its mind.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist
since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the
Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to
launch with a magazine, in September 1994.
-------------------------
posted by Larry
Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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