Tony Shannon

See the following -

Been there, Done that, Doesn’t Work: Veterans Health Administration IT goes back in time

If you have an interest in the worlds of economics, healthcare or technology, here’s a story that’s emerged this month that is worth noting for the record books. In the US, amidst the chaos of the Trump administration, yet another mistake has been made this month. For the record, it is worth noting that the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Health Administration (VHA) ended up with a contract for a large IT solution for the next 10 years worth about $10 billion as of May 2018. On the face of it that may appear to be unremarkable news: just another big expensive contract for an IT system. Yet there is a part sad/part silly dimension to it that is well worth flagging up at this point.

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City of Leeds (UK) Builds Open Source Integrated Digital Care Record for Local Communities

Press Release | UK Department for Communities and Local Government | September 23, 2015

Leeds City Council is at the helm of a ‘demonstrator’ project that is building an open source digital care record platform that will be made available to local health authorities, local authorities, and health and social care providers nationwide. The team behind the initiative, named Ripple, is made up of Leeds City Council – which is hosting the platform – the Local Government Association, NHS England and the Health and Social Care Information Centre. Its director is Tony Shannon, formerly clinical consultant for the NHS Connecting for Health programme and Chief Clinical Information Officer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Read More »

City of Leeds Blazing a Trail with an Open Platform Person Held Record

Press Release | Ripple Foundation | May 10, 2017

Leeds is leading the way in developing and piloting an open platform based Person Held Record (PHR) for local people. It follows extensive engagement with individuals, care professionals and stakeholders across the city to understand their needs and aspirations. It is believed a PHR will help people to better manage and control their own care and wellbeing and help prevent further health issues...

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EHI Interview: Tony Shannon

Staff Writer | eHealth Insider | October 19, 2011

Open source software may not be cheaper or easier, but it’s a whole lot more collaborative says one of the participants in the skunkworks at EHI Live 2011. Read More »

First cut of VistA for NHS developed

Rebecca Todd | E-Health Insider | December 11, 2013

Two US companies have worked with UK open source experts to create a ‘first cut’ of an anglicised version of the VistA electronic patient record system. Read More »

How To Ensure New IT Systems In Healthcare Are A Success

Sarah Johnson | The Guardian | October 15, 2014

Sponsored Q&A: Expert views from our live discussion on implementing IT systems...

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Leeds And ReStart Build Open Portal

Lun Whitfield | eHealth Insider | April 21, 2011

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is working with consultancy ReStart to develop an open source portal to give clinicians a single view of data held in its PAS and departmental systems. Read More »

NHS VistA: The Enlightened Choice?

Carl Reynolds | Nuffield Trust | July 12, 2012

The potential value to the NHS of learning from the international experience of the electronic medical record (EMR) system, VistA, was identified in the January 2002 NHS Information Authority White Paper:Open Source Software and the NHS. Read More »

Open Source Enlightenment Needed to End 'Dark Ages' of Health IT

Tony Shannon | Digital Health | January 11, 2017

Your article - "Whatever happened to Open Source in 2016?" highlights the brief vogue that open source recently enjoyed in the NHS – 2014-15 – and now seems to have lost. It raises some good questions and important issues, though I sense some broader perspective may be worth adding here. It’s worth remembering that healthcare is a well-established science – the first medical school established in the 9th century.  While information technology is still a young science – the first MSc in software engineering dates from 1979...

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OSEHRA 2013: Oroville Hospital CEO To Reveal Key Factors Behind their Successful Open Source EHR Self-Implementation

Press Release | Oroville Hospital | August 30, 2013

Robert Wentz, President and CEO of Oroville Hospital, will be addressing the Plenary Session of the 2nd Open Source Electronic Health Record Agent (OSEHRA) conference in Bethesda, MD, on September 5th. Wentz will discuss the key factors behind the hospital's successful self-implementation of the open source VistA EHR for less than $13 million in total and less than $7 million for the EHR component. Read More »

Overview of Open Source and VistA in the UK's NHS

There is much widely publicised interest from NHS England in encouraging the development and implementation of open-source software in the National Health System (NHS) with the debate raging in a number of forums, notably on EHI where this article and the comments it has generated are vital reading for anyone interested in this issue. This debate has been fueled by the availability of NHS England’s £260 million Technology Fund which is actively soliciting open source projects include bids to implement an NHS VistA... Read More »

Ripple: Making Waves in Healthcare IT

The Ripple Program, based out of Leeds and building upon the lessons learned from the Leeds Care Record, has recently been set up to positively disrupt health and social care towards those ends. Importantly the ethos of “open” is at the heart of the work and for very good reason. It is clear that interoperability between Health IT systems will drive real change but, what is even clearer is that only an open source approach will positively disrupt this health and social care landscape across the NHS and across the globe. Funded by NHS England and hosted by Leeds City Council, the focus of Ripple is to support health and social care organizations by providing six open source elements which can be used individually, in combination or as a whole, and are consistent patterns of need when embarking on an work towards healthcare improvement with information technology.

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Tony Shannon: The Practicalities Of Implementing VistA

Tony Shannon | Nuffield Trust | July 5, 2012

In this slideshow, Dr Tony Shannon, Consultant in Emergency Medicine and Chief Clinical Information Officer, Leeds Teaching Hospitals, outlines the practical considerations for implementing VistA in the NHS, in the context of people, processes and technology. Read More »

VistA Is A Rival to Epic and Cerner in Major Deployments of EHR Systems

According to a recent article in Healthcare IT News, Intermountain Healthcare has just signed a multi-year contract to deploy Cerner electronic health record (EHR) systems. The article claims that "only two companies – Epic and Cerner – seem to be in competition for the large and complex deployments."  However, there is a third option that constantly goes unrecognized - the widespread deployment and use of the world reknowned 'open source' VistA system by large scale healthcare provider organizations in the U.S. and overseas. Read More »

Sharing international experience: Is implementing the VA's electronic health record system an option for the NHS?

Event Details
Type: 
Seminar/Webinar
Date: 
July 5, 2012 - 2:15pm - 4:30pm
Location: 
Nuffield Trust
59 New Cavendish Street
London
United Kingdom

This roundtable will focus on sharing international experiences of using the VistA system and considering whether or not VistA might be an effective option for the NHS. At the seminar delegates will have the opportunity to:

  • Increase their understanding of VistA and its potential challenges and benefits;
  • Learn from international experience of implementing VistA, including a case study from Jordan;
  • Consider whether they think it is feasible and/ or desirable to encourage the use of VistA in the NHS.