Veterans Health Administration (VHA)

See the following -

New VA Secretary Sets Sights On Major Agency Reforms

Dan Verton | FedScoop | September 8, 2014

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald outlined for the first time Monday his strategic vision for a new, efficient and innovative VA that is no longer hamstrung by old-fashioned hierarchy and a complex maze of websites and systems that prevent veterans from accessing VA medical services...

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NHS & VHA: Transatlantic Exchange of Ideas and 'Lessons Learned' on Adoption of Health IT Solutions

Britain's 2020Health.Org has just released a major report outlining how the United Kingdom can transform its healthcare system by enhancing its existing collaboration effort with the U.S. Veteran's Health Administration (VHA) and by sharing technology, knowledge and lessons learned on the effective use of Telehealth, PHR, and EHR systems. Entitled "Making connections - A transatlantic exchange to support the adoption of digital health between the US VHA and England’s NHS", the report lays out step by step how Britain's National Health Service (NHS) can create a digital revolution that can significantly enhance its ability to provide health care. Read More »

NHS England Wants Open Source Option

Lis Evenstad | eHealth Insider | June 28, 2013

NHS England wants an open source electronic patient record system to be an option for NHS trusts, “if they want it." Read More »

NHS VistA – An Update

Staff Writer | Woodcote Consulting | June 17, 2013

There is growing support for the production of a NHS version of the VistA the US open source EPR used by the US Veterans Administration and more recently by a number of health systems outside of the US. 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 »

Obama and Biden Blast EHR Vendors for Data Blocking

As they are winding their terms in office, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden dropped a stink bomb on the health IT industry. Speaking at different events on Friday, January 9th, the President and Vice President both criticized proprietary electronic health record (EHR) vendors as the primary obstacle to the success of their administration’s health care strategy. This is the highest level acknowledgment so far of the serious impact that “lock-in” EHR software vendors are having on America’s medical infrastructure and the ability of physicians to provide medical care.

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Obama Backs 15 of 18 VA Commission Recommendations

Aisha Chowdhry | FCW | September 6, 2016

President Barack Obama is backing 15 of the 18 recommendations made by the Commission on Care to improve service delivery at the Department of Veterans Affairs. However, he is resisting a bid to revise the way the VA's health care system is run. The recommendations are included in the commission's final report...

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Obama’s Pick For Ebola Czar Comes Under Fire

Dan Verton | FedScoop | October 17, 2014

...Obama’s appointment Friday of Ebola czar Ron Klain, a career lawyer and political loyalist with limited federal project management skills and no experience managing a public health crisis, invokes images of the Bush-era response to Hurricane Katrina led by former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown, another career lawyer whose only significant management experience up until Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast was as a commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association...

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On Veterans Day, The Healthcare Debt We Owe Our Troops And Veterans

Bart Harmon | Forbes | November 11, 2012

This Veterans Day there will be much commentary on the men and women who risk their lives for our freedom...As we consider the quality of military healthcare – both for those serving in forward areas of combat and also for those veterans returning home, we assume state-of-the-art tools to treat our wounded warriors. Read More »

Online Health Communities Improve Chronic Care Quality

Ashley Gold | FierceHealthIT | June 27, 2013

Online health communities can be powerful tools for addressing chronic care issues as the number of people afflicted with such ailments rises, according to a study published this week in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. Read More »

Open Source and EHRs: A proven reality and invaluable opportunity

Michael J. Doyle | Healthcare IT News | September 20, 2011

The marriage between open source technology and electronic health records is at first blush, greeted by many with skepticism regarding robustness and efficacy. In truth, persistent myths obscure an intriguing reality: Open source EHR systems are not only possible but already in place. Read More »

Open Source Electronic Health Records For Education And Training

In spite of being very involved in the field of Health Informatics I only recently became aware of VistA for Education (VFE), which has all of the aforementioned attributes of an  excellent solution for EHR education purposes. VFE was developed as a result of a grant from the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) to supplement the ONC Health Information Technology (HIT) curriculum. Electronic health records (EHRs) are more than just the electronic equivalent of paper-based health records. Electronic health data is easier to search, share and archive, compared to paper records. Additionally, EHRs can be embedded with clinical decision support to alert and remind physicians of patient safety and preventive medicine measures.

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Open-Source Clinical Decision Support To Help Meaningful Use?

Jennifer Bresnick | EHR Intelligence | October 23, 2012

Stage 1 Meaningful Use requires the implementation of one clinical decision support (CDS) rule in patient diagnosis and care. CDS is an interactive decision support system that links observations of a patient’s individual electronic health record (EHR) with a repository of health knowledge or an artificial intelligence algorithm to provide physicians with case-specific diagnoses or suggestions for further action. Read More »

Opinion: VA System Inadequate To Meet Veterans’ Health Care Needs

Gretchen Hammer | Health Policy Solutions | November 7, 2012

The promise of access to high-quality, affordable health care is one we can deliver on for our veterans if we continue to work together in communities to understand and address the health needs of veterans and their families and if we pursue all avenues to increase health insurance options for veterans who are currently without adequate health coverage.
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Oroville Hospital CEO Outlines How VistA Can Help Hospitals Survive the HITECH Act and Obamacare

Press Release | Oroville Hospital | February 21, 2014

Robert Wentz, President and CEO of Oroville Hospital, was one of the keynote speakers at the 28th VistA Community Meeting (VCM) in Sacramento, CA. Wentz's presentation, titled “Obamacare: a provider's perspective. An opportunity for VistA and private sector Hospitals,” outlined the clear advantages of using the VistA EHR as the United States moves towards a new health system based on Obamacare...Wentz detailed in his presentation why VistA is the best option for private hospitals in the US that want to stay in business under the new rules created by Obamacare. Wentz described the major changes currently taking place in the healthcare industry as a result of Obamacare, both in terms of financial issues as well as patient/consumer side...Wentz laid out how Vista coupled with a reshaping of how care is delivered can sustains hospitals through the changes that Obamacare will bring to the healthcare system...

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