Tom Munnecke

See the following -

A 40-Year 'Conspiracy' at the VA

Arthur Allen | Politico | March 19, 2017

Four decades ago, in 1977, a conspiracy began bubbling up from the basements of the vast network of hospitals belonging to the Veterans Administration. Across the country, software geeks and doctors were puzzling out how they could make medical care better with these new devices called personal computers. Working sometimes at night or in their spare time, they started to cobble together a system that helped doctors organize their prescriptions, their CAT scans and patient notes, and to share their experiences electronically to help improve care for veterans...

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An Introduction to VISTA Architecture

Rick Marshall | VISTA Expertise Weblog | June 15, 2012

On Tuesday at 1:00 p.m. PDT I gave my first webinar, An Introduction to VISTA Architecture. It was in support of Fabián Lopez's webinar series for his VISTA Extensions Hub website, www.vxvista.org. It's the first in a series of webinars we'll be doing together, most of which will be about VISTA architecture, software lifecycle, and policy and planning.

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Can Computers Predict Medical Problems? VA Thinks Maybe.

Bob Brewin | Nextgov | January 30, 2013

The Veterans Health Administration plans to test how advanced clinical reasoning and prediction systems can use massive amounts of archived patient data to help improve care, efficiency and health outcomes. Read More »

Chuck Hagel and the Secret War Over DOD & VA Electronic Health Records

Dan Vernon | FedScoop | August 12, 2014

...Today, the agencies are moving down separate modernization paths, with DOD working on its Defense Healthcare Management System Modernization program (DHMSM) and VA planning commercial acquisitions for the next generation of its Veterans Integrated System Technology Architecture, known as VistA. But analysts, including one of the founding developers of VistA, point to years of missed opportunities for DOD to leverage what many consider to be superior existing capabilities in VA’s VistA system — an ecosystem of modular application components that in most cases have become industry standards (VA’s troubled scheduling system notwithstanding)...

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Chuck Hagel – One of the Fathers of VistA

Tom Munnecke | Tom Munnecke's Eclectica | January 6, 2013

I am pleased to read that Chuck Hagel has been nominated to the position of Secretary of Defense.  He was the Deputy Director of the VA when I worked for the Loma Linda VA Hospital, working on what would become the VistA Electronic Health Record System, one of the largest and most successful EHRs.  Starting with very humble beginnings as a “skunkworks”, Chuck played a key role in helping to evolve our early back room prototypes into a VA-wide electronic health record that has won many awards and accolades by physicians. Read More »

Chuck Hagel, Under Attack Again

Myra MacPherson | New York Times | January 8, 2013

Mr. Hagel would be the first enlisted combat veteran to be defense secretary, a grunt who has seen war from the trenches. Others who have plunged America into war — like the former defense secretaries Robert S. McNamara and Donald H. Rumsfeld, both former officers — had never fought in combat...

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Chuck Hagel’s Assessment Of iEHR: “I Didn’t Think We Knew What The Hell We Were Doing.”

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel testified before a Congressional hearing yesterday about the Integrated Electronic Health Record project: “I didn’t think we knew what the hell we were doing.” I’m glad that he put the stop to the effort after only $1 billion, the UK National Health Service blew an incredible $17 billion before pulling the plug. Read More »

Hagel lauded as early VA EHR protector

Joe Conn | Modern Healthcare IT | January 11, 2013

In 1981, Hagel, then age 35 and a former Army sergeant who received two Purple Hearts for wounds in Vietnam, was fresh from the campaign of newly elected President Ronald Reagan. He provided some badly needed political support for the rebel programmers, who had collectively begun to see themselves as members of the VA's “Underground Railroad.” Read More »

Joe Conn-DoD Should Make Right Decision and Adopt VistA

Joe Conn | Modern Healthcare | February 12, 2013

I think what's needed now remains as obvious as it has for decades, which means Shinseki and Panetta got it only half right, because they were half wrong. There should be one EHR for the military and the VA, but it shouldn't be the just dispatched Frankenstein's EHR that was to be built out of custom-made and off-the-shelf parts. It should be VistA. The VA has a demonstrably superior EHR system, so the Defense Department brass should swallow their bureaucratic pride and adopt it. Read More »

Meet Chuck Hagel, early proponent of electronic health records

Bob Brewin | NextGov | January 7, 2013

Back in 1982, when few organizations used electronic health records, Chuck Hagel, at the time deputy director of the Veterans Affairs Administration, played a key role in developing what became the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture -- the department’s electronic health record. Read More »

Munnecke on "Dots-First" vs. "Links-First" Metadata Approach, or Why ICD10 is Going to Fail

Note that, even in 1986, the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs was savvy to, and advocating the use of metadata (then called the “data dictionary – a roadmap to the database.”  It understood its use in VistA (then called DHCP), its role in portability (then with the Indian Health Service), and hopes to use it for the Department of Defense’s Composite Health Care System. Read More »

OSEHRA 2012: Spotlight On 1st Annual Open Source EHR Summit and Workshop

Staff Writer | SMART Platforms | November 7, 2012

We recently posted about Ken Mandl’s participation in a panel at the OSEHRA 1st Annual Open Source EHR Summit and Workshop. Audio and slides are now available to those with OSEHRA user accounts; scroll to Day One, 3pm, “Open Source Best Practice and Business Models.” Read More »

Surprise: Every American Will Not Have An Electronic Health Record This Year

Bob Brewin | Nextgov.com | October 9, 2014

In 2004, President George W. Bush kicked off a project designed to provide most Americans with an electronic health record in 2014. That was followed by a similar goal set by President Barack Obama in 2009.  But as the end of 2014 comes nearer, these ambitious goals still have not been met...

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United Kingdom Eyes VA’s Electronic Health Record

Bob Brewin | Nextgov | March 25, 2013

The Veterans Affairs Department and the United Kingdom’s National Health Service have teamed up to share ideas, strategies and leadership for development of health information technology, opening the possibility that the NHS could use VA’s electronic health record system. Peter Levin, the former VA Chief Technology Officer who retired this month, told Nextgov the Pentagon also should adopt VA electronic health record. Read More »

VA Eyes Cash Prizes To Generate Ideas For New Health Record

Bob Brewin | Nextgov.com | April 29, 2014

The Veterans Affairs Department plans to develop its next generation electronic health record through challenges and cash prize competitions, a tactic that proved successful on previous projects such as one to provide patients with online access to their health records.

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