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http://worldvista.org/AboutVis...
Agreed, but this sounds kinda weird too

The open source health management stack that runs on the open source GT.M, it is called VistA. It is used by many healthcare providers here in the US and Mexico.

Would adding a link have killed ya? http://worldvista.org/ I mean you don't want readers to have to google it for themselves, do you?

Well, define "health technology" but VistA (not MS) comes to mind. http://worldvista.org/

It already is
http://worldvista.org/

Though VistA is public domain, there is an open source version of it that has been converted for use in clinics and is now called WorldVistA EHR VOE see: http://www.worldvista.org/

The "obscure" language is MUMPS now called M and has been around since the early 1970's when it was written specifically for health care and is used throughout the health care industry as well as many major financial applications.

VistA does have some of it's front end written in Delphi. Much of it can be ported to be used as a web application if the effort is put into doing it.

The problem with VistA as well as any other stand alone application is that they lack any real way of exchanging information with other applications. This is where selecting openEHR can be a benefit. In fact there are discussions going on about retro-fitting VistA to use openEHR archetypes. We'll see how that goes.

Remeber that openEHR is not an application but a set of specifications that can be used by anyone.

I can follow up a bit on this, since I worked for the DVA for a few years in the early 90s. Even then, just about all records were online and searchable. A veteran that went from Albany, NY to Tampa, FL and got sick could get his records transferred overnight (electronically) between the two hospitals, and there were ways to get metadata about the veteran immediately, including recent visits at any location and reason for the visit. I imagine that improvements in networks mean that these records can be viewed immediately.

At the time, there seemed to be a lot of waste (think $10,000 CD burner in 1993ish, optical cards with images and data impressed on them, etc). But they really were trying to be ahead of the game - a friend of mine showed me his green card and it was almost identical to a design I was working with when I was at the DVA. They also had mechanisms for charging back to private insurance companies in the event a veteran was only partially covered for a visit.

Oh, and just about all the software that was written and in use by those hospitals are in the public domain and downloadable for free - many other hospitals use VistA as their base.

I always thought it was lame of Microsoft to choose Vista, since the VistA medical records software predates MS-Windows by many, many years.

A quick google searsh shows 4,260,000 web sites found using the search phrase 'world vista', 6,870 sites found using '"World Vista"' and 3,940 sites using 'worldvista'

One (obscure? - I don't think the US Government thinks so...) software related site is this sorceforge.net hosted site.

From their site:
WorldVistA is a charitable organization: a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) public-benefit corporation. WorldVistA was incorporated March 18, 2002 to measurably improve health worldwide by making medical software better and more accessible.

Note the specific reference to software. So how is Microsoft able to trademark this combination of words? It is already in use in the same industry, making it ineligable for trademark I thought.

Does this mean that groups like Vista Windows, AltaVista, WorldVista, Vista, and Friends of Vista are all going to sue Microsoft on the same grounds that Microsoft sued Lindows a while back?

Vista was developed by the Government starting back in the late 70s - early 80s when the GPL was just a twinkle in Stallman's eye, as can be seen here. It is written in a near obsolete language called MUMPS. It was (and still is to some extent) accessed via VT100 telnet. A GUI and extra components were added in the 90s. Because it was developed by the Government, it is public domain. The OSS version is based on the Government's work.

I was hoping it was something the average open source hacker could work on... like PHP, or J2EE/JavaEE... but when I saw the list of components... uh OK.

Veterans Health Information System and Technology Architecture

This is why Open Source is Evil, right?

WorldVista? Is it an OSS app for Longhorn (a/k/a Vista)? Boy, Perot Systems is on the ball with new Microsoft developments: "Duncan Pringle, chief Vista technologist at Perot Systems" I smell something fishy here...

I've been following this story for some time now. For me, the cool thing about this quasi-open-source project is that it will be built using source code that was released to the public thanks to the US FOIA (Freedom of Information Act).

This software was built years ago by the Department of Veterans Affairs for its hospitals and clinics. Similar commercial software is easily sold for over US$1 Million. I would love to see more software developed by the US government with taxpayer money released into the public so that the open source community can benefit. If you know of any government software that could be useful, file a FOIA request! (Assuming of course that it does not violate national security, yada, yada.)

For more info on this software and other open source stuff going on in the healthcare world, see these links:

• Pacific Telehealth and Technology Hui
• WorldVista
• Hardhats
• LinuxMedNews

-- Ignacio Valdes, MD, MS
-- Editor: Linux Medical News

"So now the project gets cancelled. The sad thing is that VA really needed this program to succeed. I suspect that the technology has been made a scapegoat for mismanagement (not that the technology was perfect). Well.. back to 1964."

So what was wrong with using VistA as a base to work on then??? If they were so forward in doing their patient management systems using FOSS, then they should have done their payroll system on something similar... and not only that, but investment in producing an open source payroll system would not be lost as other large governmental organisations etc. could have gained off it, as the base work would have already been done.

I forgot to include some links to the open source community for the VistA software:

• Pacific Telehealth and Technology Hui
• WorldVista
• Hardhats

I've been working in Healthcare IT for nearly 9 years. As an open source advocate, I am really excited by the progress and interest I've seen lately in FOSS solutions in the healthcare realm. There was a time that I thought the open source model would never work in vertical markets. Boy, am I glad I was wrong! Check out LinuxMedNews to get an idea of how much is happening in this area.

Here are some links to projects that I find interesting and seem to have the most traction:

• FreeMed
• OpenEMR
• TORCH
• OiO
• WorldVistA / OpenVistA
• Care2x

There are many, many more. These are just some that came to mind. If you work in healthcare, do yourself a favor and check out this thriving community!