The Veterans Affairs Department is moving ahead with a plan to set up a moderated "open source ecosystem" forming around its electronic health record, known as VistA.

In a draft request for proposals released April 1, the VA embraces an open source development model first proposed earlier this year in a request for information, under which a central body termed the "custodial agent" initiates open source projects, accepts or rejects other proposed projects, and manages the process of placing code into the codebase. The RFP is for the agent. VistA is already open source in the sense that its source code is available for download, but not open source in the sense that the VA will not incorporate modifications made to the source code by the public.

All code that enters the codebase will have to undergo certification by the custodial agent that it operates as intended and meets standards, while code not intended to reside in the codebase itself but interact with it can be certified for interoperability.

A proposed project rejected by the custodial agent could still be developed independently and submitted to the agent for certification of interoperability, the RFP states.

In the RFP, the VA sates it intends to initiate a codebase modernization project for VistA and deploy an open source version of the EHR to its facilities.

The VA is accepting responses to the draft RFP through April 11.

For more:
- go to the draft RFP FBO page
- directly download the draft RFP (.pdf)

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