(from the dept of giving-credit-where-it's-due)
Clik here to view.
Peter Levin and Roger Baker leave Dept Veterans Affairs
VistA is the Dept of Vets Affairs health record system, and it's been a huge success. VA has open sourced it, which is remarkable achievement for
Washington, a really big deal. It means that anyone can improve it or interface with it. Check out the Challenge.gov VA Medical Appointment Scheduling Contest.
What they're now saying is that the Dept of Defense is considering a health records system, and that VistA should be considered for that.
That sounds right to me, it gets the job done, has been working well for years, and is already available publicly for the public to better help veterans. That means people can find ways to add function to better help active service troops. Find out more here: http://fedscoop.com/va-responds-to-defense-iehr-rfi-with-open-source-recommendation/
But wait, there's more! Folks at VA have been doing some big stuff since 2009. They've announced the VA Center for Innovation. I'd say that the
following is a small part of VA innovation, I've seen it firsthand and it's real. Here's a little of what they have to say:
As you can see, the new VA Center for Innovation is more than a name change for us. And to make this all the more real, we get to announce a
few recent milestones along with the VACI rollout:
- Launched a dozen new innovations covering telemedicine, prosthetic socket designs, kidney disease, mobile health/Blue Button, and robotics for sterilization of medical equipment
- Launched the new VACI website at: www.innovation.va.gov
- Published the 2010-2012 Stakeholder Report (available for download at www.innovation.va.gov)
- Selected our first Senior Fellows (Dr. Adam Darkins and Dr. Peter Almenoff on telehealth and healthcare value, respectively)
- Named serial entrepreneur and Air Force veteran Steve Blank as Senior Advisor to VACI
- Appointed our first EiR in Doug Trauner, CEO of theCarrot.com and co-chair of the FCC's mHealth taskforce
- Added our first participant in the Partnership program with the nation's largest health carrier, UnitedHealth Group
- Added our second Partnership, this one with TEDMED
