How will the availability of VistA affect the commercial EMR market?
While CMS will sponsor the development and distribution of VistA-Office EHR to ensure that a minimum level of EHR technology is available to all physicians, an ancillary project goal is to encourage and support a vendor community that can provide value added training, support and software enhancements to VistA-Office EHR users. There are several unknowns left to be addressed, particularly the impact on the vendor EHR products, confirmation of interoperability between VistA -Office EHR and vendor products, and information on how vendors will interact with the government representatives to ensure a management services administration plan is developed. Vendors are encouraged to provide additional feedback to CMS and VA through a portal developed by CMS and the Iowa Foundation for Medical Care at vista@ifmc.org. Remember there currently is no support infrastructure. There will be many entrepreneurs that will charge various prices for those services. It could be awhile before the support th
