Context
The Open Source Electronic Health Record Alliance’s (OSEHRA) mission is to build and support an open source community of users, developers, service providers, and researchers engaged in advancing electronic health record (EHR) software. The U.S. government supports OSEHRA in encouraging open source EHR-related software development from the private sector and other government agencies.
Challenge
Open Source Software (OSS) candidates need to be identified to augment the decision to replace Veterans Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) with Cerner EHR. Additionally, OSS candidates will be needed to sustain and enhance VistA while Cerner EHR gets implemented. The U.S. government lacks flexible internal processes to identify and accept OSS candidates, and OSEHRA faces a strategic challenge as VA transitions to Cerner EHR.
Our Innovative Solution
Our team developed a robust, publicly-vetted open source candidate analysis and selection methodology using a customized database and helpful tools designed to research and generate graphics and data for deliverables. We are also working with OSEHRA and providing thought leadership on the various strategic challenges they face.
Tangible Result
In the first year of the program, we identified 429 OSS candidates for analysis, and recommended 24 candidates for intake. Five of the recommended candidates have passed OSEHRA certification so far, validating the quality of the software.