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DoD Ditches Open Source Medical Records System In $4.3B Contract

Posted by samzenpus on from the changing-things-up dept.

dmr001 writes: The US Department of Defense opted not to use the Department of Veterans Affairs' open source VistA electronic health record system in its project to overhaul its legacy systems, instead opting for a consortium of Cerner, Leidos and Accenture. The initial $4.3 billion implementation is expected to be the first part of a $9 billion dollar project. The Under Secretary for Acquisition stated they wanted a system with minimum modifications and interoperability with private sector systems, though much of what passes for inter-vendor operability in the marketplace is more aspirational than operable. The DoD aims to start implementation at 8 sites in the Pacific Northwest by the end of 2016, noting that "legacy systems are eating us alive in terms of support and maintenance," consuming 95% of the Military Health Systems IT budget.

3 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. follow the money by Lead+Butthead · · Score: 4, Interesting

    follow the money and the answer is in front of you.

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    ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
  2. Re:A consortium of Cerner, Leidos and Accenture by invictusvoyd · · Score: 3, Interesting

    We are deeply grateful to Source Forge for providing us with our place in cyberspace for this web site.

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

  3. VistA is a nightmare by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 5, Interesting

    i was interested in VistA and what all the fuss was about, so i decided to check it out. turns out the backend is nightmare code that would would swear was machine generated. after some investigation i found out it's MUMPS (Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System) code. a lot of useful stuff started way back in the 1970s... but MUMPS is a 1960s nightmare come to life.

    think i'm exagerating? here's a module from VistA's code which was apparently updated in 1989.

    DENTA1 ;ISC2/SAW,HAG-DENTAL TREATMENT DATA SERVICE REPORTS ; 1/10/89 11:08 AM ; ;;1.2;DENTAL;**24**;JAN 26, 1989
      D:'$D(DT) DT^DICRW S %O="OPT",U="^",S=";",O=$T(@(%O)),DENTV=$$VERSION^XPDUTL("DENT") I $D(^DOPT($P(O,S,5),"VERSION")),(DENTV=^DOPT($P(O,S,5),"VERSION")) G IN
      K ^DOPT($P(O,S,5))
      F I=1:1 Q:$T(@(%O)+I)="" S ^DOPT($P(O,S,5),I,0)=$P($T(@(%O)+I),S,3),^DOPT($P(O,S,5),"B",$P($P($T(@(%O)+I),S,3),"^",1),I)=""
      S K=I-1,^DOPT($P(O,S,5),0)=$P(O,S,4)_U_1_U_K_U_K K I,K,X S ^DOPT($P(O,S,5),"VERSION")=DENTV
    IN I $P(O,S,6)'="" D @($P(O,S,6))
    PR S O=$T(@(%O)),S=";" S IOP=$I D ^%ZIS W:IOST'["PK-" @IOF K IOP
      I $P(O,S,7)'="" D @($P(O,S,7))
      E W !!,$P(O,S,3),":",!,$$VERSION^XPDUTL("DENT")," ",$P($T(+1),S,1),!!,$P(O,S,4),"S:",!
      F J=1:1 Q:'$D(^DOPT($P(O,S,5),J,0)) S K=$S(J0 S Z2=Z1
      G:Z3=0 W I Z3>1 S DIC="^DENT(225,",DIC(0)="AEMNQ",DIC("A")="Select STATION.DIVISION: " S:$D(DENTSTA) DIC("B")=$S(DENTSTA[" ":+DENTSTA,1:DENTSTA) D ^DIC Q:Y

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