OSEHRA and the Future of VA VistA

...VA VistA is arguably the best electronic health record (EHR) in existence. It was developed over the course of several decades by federal employees in a collaborative, open-source fashion. Because it was developed by the U.S. government, it is available under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the public domain. VistaA has served as the basis for several open-source and proprietary products.

Anyone with expertise in health IT knows about VistA, but few in the open-source community are aware of the project. This is tragic, because it really is one of the most important examples of an open-source system anywhere, for any reason. Why? Because Veterans Affairs (VA) has been able to use VistA to deliver a system of high-quality healthcare...