DSS, Inc., Announces Open Source Version of vxVistA EHR Framework, Joins Open Health Tools Foundation
Leading VistA developer release includes commercial enhancements for non-U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Providers.
Juno Beach, FL, January 09, 2009 --(PR.com)-- DSS, Inc., the leading developer of enhancements to VistA, today announced it will open source the code for its vxVistA electronic health record (EHR) framework. In this major development, DSS has effectively removed the greatest obstacle to collaboration in the VistA community by providing their enhanced version of VistA under a commercially-friendly open source license that can be used to unite the VistA community.
Mark Byers, president and CEO of DSS, Inc., said “vxVistA is being released as open source software at a critical time in this country's history. The health care crisis is one of the major challenges facing this country. VistA deployments in the private sector have demonstrated that VistA can provide private hospitals and clinics with the highest quality Electronic Health Record in the shortest amount of time -- for a fraction of the cost of competing products.” According to Byers, “We can lower the cost of health care while significantly increasing the quality of that care by implementing VistA across the United States.”
As an integral part of its actions, DSS applied for membership in the Open Health Tools (OHT) Foundation. OHT is the leading non-profit organization for open source health care projects. Skip McGaughey, executive director of Open Health Tools said, “We are very excited about DSS joining OHT and making such a significant contribution. The VistA technology has been used by millions of people and is the established benchmark for the industry. We are looking forward to helping DSS bring this technology to a worldwide community.”
Byers explained, “DSS has been looking for an approach for the past two years to provide an open source version of vxVistA. OHT presented us with the kind of approach that we were looking for as well as a commercially-friendly license that was acceptable to the members of the VistA community.” The vxVistA EHR framework will be part of the OHT Forge project.
The OHT Foundation is modeled after the Eclipse Foundation, one the most successful open source projects today. vxVistA will be released under the Eclipse Public License (EPL). By using the EPL, all members of the VistA community, including competitors, will be able to use vxVistA as the core framework for their products and innovations.
Open Health Tools CEO Skip McGaughey comments, “Open source is all about collaboration and is increasingly being recognized as the currency in the new economy. This project is all about meeting an industry need and promoting standards to solve complex interoperability problems in health care.”
vxVistA is also available in an Enterprise version, which includes DSS-developed modules for professional services, support and training.
About DSS, Inc.
Since 1994, DSS, Inc. has provided the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and numerous commercial health care providers with enhancements to VistA, an-integrated administrative and clinical software application. DSS Inc.'s VistA integrated applications include billing, coding, dental, document imaging, fee basis claims processing, ICU, medical charting, mental health, patient registration, radiology decision support, release of medical information, surgery, and telephone triage. DSS, Inc. employs its special expertise in integrating administrative and clinical medical software applications in the commercial marketplace as well, currently providing over a dozen companies with VistA integration. DSS, Inc. is one of seven contract holders in the VA VistA Contractor Support (VCS) blanket purchase agreement (BPA). VCS vendors provide contracted software maintenance and support the 110 modules which comprise VistA. Since, DSS, Inc. has been providing a commercialized version of VistA (vxVistA) to the U.S. health care market. For more information, visit www.dssinc.com.
About Open Health Tools
Open Health Tools is an open source community with a vision of enabling an ubiquitous ecosystem where members of the Health and IT professions can collaborate to build inter operable systems that enable patients and their care providers to have access to vital and reliable medical information at the time and place it is needed. Open Health Tools will generate a vibrant active ecosystem involving software product and service companies, medical equipment companies, health care providers, insurance companies, government health service agencies, and standards organizations. For more information, go to www.openhealthtools.org.
vxVistA and VistA are trademarks or service marks of DSS, Inc., and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs respectively. All other trademarks used in this document are the property of their respective owners.
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Mark Byers, president and CEO of DSS, Inc., said “vxVistA is being released as open source software at a critical time in this country's history. The health care crisis is one of the major challenges facing this country. VistA deployments in the private sector have demonstrated that VistA can provide private hospitals and clinics with the highest quality Electronic Health Record in the shortest amount of time -- for a fraction of the cost of competing products.” According to Byers, “We can lower the cost of health care while significantly increasing the quality of that care by implementing VistA across the United States.”
As an integral part of its actions, DSS applied for membership in the Open Health Tools (OHT) Foundation. OHT is the leading non-profit organization for open source health care projects. Skip McGaughey, executive director of Open Health Tools said, “We are very excited about DSS joining OHT and making such a significant contribution. The VistA technology has been used by millions of people and is the established benchmark for the industry. We are looking forward to helping DSS bring this technology to a worldwide community.”
Byers explained, “DSS has been looking for an approach for the past two years to provide an open source version of vxVistA. OHT presented us with the kind of approach that we were looking for as well as a commercially-friendly license that was acceptable to the members of the VistA community.” The vxVistA EHR framework will be part of the OHT Forge project.
The OHT Foundation is modeled after the Eclipse Foundation, one the most successful open source projects today. vxVistA will be released under the Eclipse Public License (EPL). By using the EPL, all members of the VistA community, including competitors, will be able to use vxVistA as the core framework for their products and innovations.
Open Health Tools CEO Skip McGaughey comments, “Open source is all about collaboration and is increasingly being recognized as the currency in the new economy. This project is all about meeting an industry need and promoting standards to solve complex interoperability problems in health care.”
vxVistA is also available in an Enterprise version, which includes DSS-developed modules for professional services, support and training.
About DSS, Inc.
Since 1994, DSS, Inc. has provided the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and numerous commercial health care providers with enhancements to VistA, an-integrated administrative and clinical software application. DSS Inc.'s VistA integrated applications include billing, coding, dental, document imaging, fee basis claims processing, ICU, medical charting, mental health, patient registration, radiology decision support, release of medical information, surgery, and telephone triage. DSS, Inc. employs its special expertise in integrating administrative and clinical medical software applications in the commercial marketplace as well, currently providing over a dozen companies with VistA integration. DSS, Inc. is one of seven contract holders in the VA VistA Contractor Support (VCS) blanket purchase agreement (BPA). VCS vendors provide contracted software maintenance and support the 110 modules which comprise VistA. Since, DSS, Inc. has been providing a commercialized version of VistA (vxVistA) to the U.S. health care market. For more information, visit www.dssinc.com.
About Open Health Tools
Open Health Tools is an open source community with a vision of enabling an ubiquitous ecosystem where members of the Health and IT professions can collaborate to build inter operable systems that enable patients and their care providers to have access to vital and reliable medical information at the time and place it is needed. Open Health Tools will generate a vibrant active ecosystem involving software product and service companies, medical equipment companies, health care providers, insurance companies, government health service agencies, and standards organizations. For more information, go to www.openhealthtools.org.
vxVistA and VistA are trademarks or service marks of DSS, Inc., and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs respectively. All other trademarks used in this document are the property of their respective owners.
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Contact
Open Health Tools
Skip McGaughey
828-225-1890
www.openhealthtools.org
If you would like to schedule an interview with Open Health Tools, please contact Barbara Stewart at 480-488-6909 or by email at barbara@patterson.com.
Skip McGaughey
828-225-1890
www.openhealthtools.org
If you would like to schedule an interview with Open Health Tools, please contact Barbara Stewart at 480-488-6909 or by email at barbara@patterson.com.
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