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Re: Editorial: RHIO's and the Illusion of Health I
by J. Marc Overhage on Monday December 19, 2005 @ 09:27 PM
A few notes.
First, while the Vista application is used nationwide it is not really different from the Siemens Invision system whicih is also used nationwide. The VA does not have nationwide interoperability today. You can peak at another VA medical centers data but you cannot use data from there for decisions upport. There are hundreds of Siemen's Invison customers (I use them only as an example that I have direct experience with -- there are others) who use the same software with substantially the same interfac across the country but without data integration.

More directly, there is absolutely ZERO probability that we will see a single application across any substantial fraction of our fragmented healthcare enterprise anytime in the next several decades. For better or worse we have a widely distributed healthcare "system" and each component of that system has its own contraints and challenges. While VISTA is available to physician practices for example, it provides very little support for pediatricians and so isn't suitable for them. Further, while there is some work going on to address this, I can't imagine how VISTA could work for the 2 person practice which dominates our healthcare environment. I do want to be clear that I think the VA has done great work creating and implementing VISTA and I'm not bashing it just pointing out why a single solution is unlikely in healthcare just as it is unlikely in retail. You could ask the same questiion about why every POS (point of sale) system doens't work exactly the same way avoiding works having to relearn an interface when they change jobs from Starbucks to McDonalds to the Gap.
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    Re: Editorial: RHIO's and the Illusion of Health I
    by Ignacio Valdes, MD, MS on Monday December 19, 2005 @ 10:54 PM
    What healthcare system uses Siemens Invision exclusively, nationwide?

    In what way does the VA not have nationwide interoperability today?

    Why zero probability?

    How is healthcare the same as Starbucks/McDonalds/Gap?

    -- IV
    [ Reply to this ]
    • Re: Editorial: RHIO's and the Illusion of Health I
      by J. Marc Overhage on Monday December 19, 2005 @ 11:07 PM
      Its not that any particulary "system" uses Siemen's Invision just that there isn't anything "special" about a particular application being used in many sites across the country. I would be happy to be corrected but to my knowledge DATA from one VA medical center cannot flow to another VA medical center today. You can open a view into some data from another medical center but data does not move so in view they are not interoperable.

      the reason I say zero probability is that there is no compelling reason for thousands and thousands or healthcare organizations to switch from their existing systems that they spent millions to purchase and implement at some risk to their organization. They are not going to change without compelling reasons and even if they decided to we don't have the manpower to implement a different system nationwide.

      Maybe I misunderstood your point but I thought you were suggesting that everyone in healthcare adopt the same interface and I was asking why that would happen in healthcare when it hasn't happenedin these much less complicated service industries.
      [ Reply to this ]

     
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