VistA

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VA program to schedule patient appointments on verge of collapse

Bob Brewin | Nextgov | March 31, 2009

An eight-year-old, $167 million project to develop a core computer application to schedule patient appointments at hospitals run by the Veterans Affairs Department has all but collapsed, and senior executives are worried about the repercussions it could cause on the Hill and in the White House, according to an internal memo obtained by Nextgov. Read More »

VA Secretary to Congress: We Don't Know What the Cerner EHR Will Cost

Bernie Monegain | Healthcare IT News | June 22, 2017

Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin, MD, told a Senate subcommittee on Wednesday he does not yet know the cost for the new Cerner electronic health record that the VA plans to purchase. While Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, said he supports the decision to replace the VA’s existing Vista EHR, he worried the cost was not part of the 2018 budget. “I understand you don’t want to just pick a number,” Schatz told Shulkin. “But it’s not zero. And we’re about to mark this bill up and it’s difficult to do a markup when, lacking information, we’re expected to sort of book it at zero”...

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VA Selects Bitscopic's Praedico for Public Health Surveillance

Press Release | Bitscopic | March 20, 2015

Bitscopic Inc., a leading provider of health analytics tools, announced today that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has selected its Praedico platform to detect and monitor infectious disease outbreaks across the country. In addition, the VA is going to pilot Bitscopic's advanced analytics software for the early detection and management of hospital acquired infections (HAI) and other clinical informatics applications. Bitscopic's Praedico scans data from electronic health records (EHRs), laboratories, pharmacies, and other sources in seconds. It has been used to analyze infectious disease data including influenza, dengue, Hepatitis C (HCV), etc. Praedico is a modular, highly configurable, and customizable platform. It can detect and monitor large-scale events such as antibiotic resistance trends and potential major disease outbreaks. In addition, it monitors more localized events and tools, such as patient monitoring devices, and surgical site infections. Read More »

VA Shifts Data Center Operations to DOD

Staff | Washington Business Journal | January 20, 2012

The shift in operations may take more than a year but will not cause a cut in any VA jobs. The VA will move data center operations that support its Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture electronic health records, which will help support development of a joint electronic health record system for both departments.

VA Sponsors Contest to Find Best Possible Scheduling Software

Stephen Spotswood | US Medicine | March 1, 2013

VA is currently seeking assistance in finding ways to better allocate this resource in the form of modernized scheduling software and in October launched the VA Medical Appointment Scheduling Contest (vascheduling.challenge.go). It is a competition soliciting private industry to encourage the creation of updated, open-source software that would accommodate the rapidly evolving needs of the department. Read More »

VA Taps DSHI to Develop App for Tablets

Brian Dolan | MobiHealthNews | January 31, 2012

The Veterans Health Administration (VA) has tapped DSHI Systems to create a tablet-based mobile triage system for the emergency room that determines how urgently a patients needs to be seen by a physician. The application, called ER Mobile, will help emergency room nurses better identify the sickest patients so that they can be cared for first.

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VA Turns to Telehealth Tech for Diabetes Monitoring

Bernie Monegain | Government Health IT | November 9, 2011

SweetSpot Diabetes Care, a Portland, Ore.-based company, will remotely monitor blood glucose levels in veterans with diabetes, beginning with a pilot in Dayton, Ohio. An award from the Department of Veteran Affair's industry innovation competition, known as VAi2, will pay for the initiative aimed at improving care and reducing complications. Read More »

VA, DOD Choose Open Source to Combine EHRs

Ken Terry | Information Week | September 9, 2011

In a decisive break with the past, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DOD), which operate the two largest healthcare systems in the country, on Aug. 30 officially launched an open-source community to help them revamp and unify their electronic health records. Read More »

VA, DoD Discusses Steps Toward iEHR, VLER

Bernie Monegain | Government Health IT | February 29, 2012

When Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki met at the Pentagon earlier this week, EHRs was one of the topics on the table. The meeting on Monday was one in a series the two secretaries have held on issues of common interest to both Departments. Read More »

VA, HHS Team Up On Telehealth

Mike Miliard | Government Health IT | September 13, 2012

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki have announced a joint effort to expand care delivery to veterans living in rural areas. Read More »

VA, U.K. health service team up on IT

Joe Conn | Modern Healthcare | March 22, 2013

The healthcare arm of the Veterans Affairs Department and the United Kingdom's National Health Service are teaming up under a three-year agreement to swap leaders, staff and ideas about the use of healthcare information technology by the two huge government-financed systems, according to a new joint report. Read More »

VA-DOD Details Joint EHR Interface for Unified View

Mary Mosquera | Government Health IT | September 21, 2011

The Veterans Affairs and Defense Departments have provided details on how they will rely on a graphical user interface to knit together current aging and proprietary systems into their planned integrated electronic health record (iEHR), providing a common look and feel. The shared interface will unify what the providers, employees and patients see even as functions and systems change on th Read More »

Vendor Tapped without Competition for Key Parts of Defense-VA Pharmacy System

Bob Brewin | Nextgov | June 5, 2012

Buried deep in an ostensibly competitive new procurement for the pharmacy information system to serve the Veterans Affairs and Defense departments’ integrated electronic health record is the fact that VA already has selected a vendor to provide key components of what will become the largest pharmacy management system in the world.

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Veterans Affairs CIO Eyes Budget Increase

J. Nicholas Hoover | Information Week | February 21, 2012

While IT spending across most of the federal government would be flat next year under President Obama's budget released last week, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) would see a 6.9% increase, with much of the uptick going to improved electronic health records (EHRs).

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Veterans Affairs Will host Electronic Health Records in DISA Data Centers

Bob Brewin | Nextgov | January 20, 2012

Moving the VistA electronic health records to DISA data centers will help support development of a joint electronic health record for both departments, which will make it the largest in the world, serving 9.7 million active-duty personnel, retirees and their families, and 6 million veterans.

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