Some U.K. Health Experts Eye U.S. Veterans Affairs IT System

Joseph Conn | Modern Healthcare | January 5, 2012

Chris [Richardson] spoke of a grass-roots movement in England to try and persuade the folks running one or more of the 60 or so regional health “trusts” administering National Health Service programs there to give VistA a try....

Dr. Geraint Lewis, a British physician, public heath specialist and researcher, called after the holidays. He'd just moved from the U.K. to Chicago where he's on sabbatical, doing outcomes research with Walgreens. Lewis is a leader in the push for a VistA pilot back home.

It was on a previous research fellowship in New York four years ago with the Commonwealth Fund, Lewis said, that he toured a VA facility near his Manhattan apartment to see VistA demonstrated. Lewis was “completely taken aback by how good it was,” he said. “Every since, I've been lobbing for having for its use in the NHS.”...