VA's e-Health records could be national model

From Nextgov

VA's health record system cited as model for a national network

By Bob Brewin 03/27/09


One of the more perplexing problems facing the Obama administration's pursuit of building a nationwide electronic health records system is the fact that hospitals and doctors can't share medical data seamlessly because the medical networks are incompatible.

But many health officials say they might have found the solution at the Veterans Affairs Department. Medical information technology specialists and industry executives told Nextgov that the open-source version of the VA's electronic health record system called the Veterans Health Information System and Technology Architecture (VistA) could serve as a building block for e-health networks nationwide and provide a variety of plug-and-play medical applications that can be easily shared among clinicians.

Open-source systems allow a range of applications that power information sharing to be shared on a large scale, just as users of Apple Computer's iPhone's open interface can download thousands of various applications off the Internet. The same model should be the primary approach the Obama administration uses when spending the $19 billion stimulus investment in health information technology, two doctors wrote in an article in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, released on March 25.


Full article at:
http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090327_6548.php