Open VistA for AHLTA?

Last week the Military Health System detailed plans to replace its AHLTA electronic health record system -- loathed by its clinicians -- with a new system based on commercial products.

At about the same time, the Veterans Affairs Department issued a request for information seeking comments on developing a new version of its VistA electronic health record system based on open source software and asked, "How would other federal agencies participate or benefit from an open source approach to VistA EHR?"

Maybe one answer to this question is for MHS to catch a ride on the VA open source train. Both outfits sooner or later treat the same pool patients and have an ongoing effort to develop a joint electronic record that President Obama mandated.

Since MHS is desperately seeking an AHLTA alternative (I hear all of the network's development funds have been zeroed out), it would seem logical for MHS to go along with VA.

But logic is, indeed, a rare commodity inside the Beltway.

Meanwhile, I have heard from two reliable sources that the winner of the MHS commercial software competition is all but pre-ordained. It's Epic Systems. The same company that supplied its electronic health record software to Kaiser Permanente, which operates the largest private health care system in the country.

I'm told that the thinking inside MHS is only Epic has software that can meet the agency's requirements.