32nd VistA Community Meeting

The VistA community is holding its 32nd VistA Community Meeting (VCM) at the Regenstrief Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana. The meeting is going to be addressed by a wide range of speakers, from current and former top officials of the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), leading innovators for the Vista and RPMS EHRs, as well as key member of other open health communities, in particular the OpenMRS community. The goal of these meetings is to create a collaborative conference where members of the VistA Community can network and collaborate, i.e., to share ideas and work, with the objective of moving VistA & the VistA community forward.

With the participation of members of many other open health communities and projects, as well as members of the Regenstrief Institute, this VCM may be the beginning of a transition towards open collaboration with other major open health projects.

Some of the highlights include:

• Presentations and discussions regarding collaboration among open source health communities such as OpenMRS, OSCAR, OSEHRA and WorldVistA.
• Collaboration within the VistA Community.
• Open Source Drug Databases.
• Updates on the VistA GUI (CPRS), Pharmacy, Reminders, the Immunization project, the Lexicon and terminology service and eHMP.
• Best open source options for low & middle income countries National Electronic Health Records.
• Presentations about new projects and software including GraphQL, Praedico, and Astronaut VistA.

Compared to most meetings, VistA Community Meetings are relatively unstructured.  The agenda is always a draft agenda, because attendees are free to change it – even during the meeting – in order to  better meet their objectives. VistA Community Meetings were originally almost exclusively technical meetings.  Over time, the balance shifted, so that although there are technical presentations, there are more discussions on other aspects, including implementation, support, demonstration, education, training, community collaboration, and other open health solutions.

Come prepared to introduce yourself and discuss your interest in and work with VistA as talking with the other attendees at the meeting is a least half of the reason to come to the meetings.  If you wish to present material, please contact Nancy Anthracite.  If you think you might decide to give a presentatino, bring your presentation with you as things can be added to the agenda at the last minute.  Also, we encourage you to bring your laptop to the meeting with you. It seems like there is always someone who regrets not having brought it so they can install VistA or try the latest and greatest software while they are at the meeting.

Speakers List 

Ahmad Zubaidi- EHR Integration Team Leader from the Kingdom of Jordan

• Alain Victor Itangishaka, master's degree student at Tampere University of Technology/ Finland
• Alan Arnold, VA Program Manager, Standards and Terminology Services (STS) Sustainment and Collaborative Terminology & Data Managements (CTT&DM), NOT CONFIRMED
• Alan Montgomery, National Support for Reminders, VA
• Alissa L. Russ,  Health Services Research Scientist,Roudebush VAMC and Regenstrief Institute, Inc., Adjunct Assistant Professor, Purdue University College of Pharmacy
• Anthony Puleo, CPRS developer, Reminders Dialogs Developer, VA
• Ayman Ghaith - EHS Senior Developer from the Kingdom of Jordan
• Bob Ruff, Developer, VA
• Brian E. Dixon, Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Fairbanks School of Public Health; Research Scientist, Center for Biomedical Informatics, Regenstrief Institute; Research Scientist, IU Center for Health Services and Outcomes Research
• Chris Rhodes, Director, Open Source Management, Strategic Investment Management (SIM), Office of Informatics & Analytics (OIA), US Department of Veterans Affairs
• Chris Richardson, WorldVistA
• Dan Cramer, Terminology Analyst, Mantech Mission Solutions & Services Group
• Donna Ellis, Product Development Program Manager, Pharmacy Re-Engineering, VA
• Doug Martin, Regenstrief
• Eddie Brito, DSS Inc., Open Source vxVistA
• Edgar Coffey, VA Project Manager, STS Sustainment NOT CONFIRMED
• Fabian Lopez, DSS Inc., Open Source vxVistA
• Ignacio Valdez, Astronaut VistA
• Jason Hawsey, CPRS Developer, Department of Veterans Affairs
• Jeff Udell, Contract Project Manager, Mantech Mission Solutions & Services Group
• Jim Bell, retired VA developer
• Joel Ivey, Developer, Retired from the VA but not from VistA
• Joel Mewton, Bitscopic
• Keith Magoon, Immunization Project Manager, Department of Veterans Affairs
• Keith Michael, eHMP Product Manager, eHMP
• Kim Rowe, Lexicon VistA Developer
• KS Bhaskar, FIS, Development Manager
• Linda S. Williams, Principal Investigator, VA HSR&D Precision Monitoring QUERI, Investigator, VA Center for Health Information and Communication, Professor of Neurology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Research Scientist, Regenstrief Institute, Inc.
• Mary Hagar, Medsphere
• Masoud Hosseini, Doctoral Candidate in Informatics, Indiana University School of Informatics
• Melissa Chin, Contract Project Manager - STS Sustainment NOT CONFIRMED
• Mike Henderson, Consultant, Open Source Projects
• Muriyesu Ferdinand, master's degree student at Tampere University of Technology/ Finland and IT Engineer at King Faisal Hospital Kigali/Rwanda
• Olivier Bodenreider, Chief, Cognitive Science Branch, National Library of Medicine RxNorm Update
• Patrick Redington, Reminders Developer, VA
• Paul Biondich, Director, Global Health Informatics Program - Regenstrief,  Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine
• Paul Tibbits, MD, CIO Architecture, Strategy, and Design, Department of Veterans Affairs
• Richard D Boyce, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Faculty, Center for Pharmaceutical Policy and Prescribing, Faculty,
• Rob Silverman, PharmD, Program Manager, PBM Clinical Informatics, VA
• Rob Tweed, M Gateway
• Roger A. Maduro, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Open Health News.
• Sam Habiel, VistA Expertise Network
• Seong Ki Mun, CEO, OSEHRA
• Shane Mcnamee, Director, Development Section, Health Solutions Management, OIA, eHMP, Veterans Health Administration (VHA)
• Shaun Grannis, Interim Director, Center for Biomedical Informatics, Regenstrief Institute
• Steve Brown, Knowledge Based Systems Group, DVA - NOT CONFIRMED
• Steve Oxley, CMO, Central Regional Hospital, North Carolina
• Theresa Cullen, Associate Director, Global Health Informatics, Regenstrief Institute