VistA, 'Gold Standard' of EHRs

That's what Eric Shinseki, secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department, told a House VA committee hearing on Tuesday. So, if this is the view of the boss, why, oh why, is VA so intent on ripping out the Gold Standard Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) electronic health record system for a new-fangled deal called HealtheVet.

OK, I've heard all the arguments and know that VistA as well as the Composite Health Care System, which is the system underlying the Defense Department's AHLTA (not an acronym) are both based on 1960s software called MUMPS (that stands for Massachusetts General Hospital Utility Multi-Programming System), which is so old that it is hard to maintain and update.

But, despite its age, VistA works, and works so well that Shinseki told the hearing that it saves lives and increases efficiency in the VA. I fear that any new system will take years to develop and deploy (good news for vendors), and end up as a nightmare that neither improves health care nor efficiency.

"Old" that works is better than "new" that does not.

The "Mona Lisa" is old, but I don't think the management at the Louvre is ready to junk it in favor of any work by the cool Britannia artist Tracy Emin, who once exhibited her bed as art at the Tate Modern in London.