The Veterans Affairs Department envisions a moderated "open source ecosystem" forming around its electronic health record, known as VistA.

In a request for information released Feb. 18, the VA says open source will reverse what it says has been a slowing pace of VistA capabilities over the past few years.

"As open source communities such as Apache, Eclipse, and Mozilla have demonstrated, the open source model can lead to reliable, predictable, safe and robust software," the RFI states.

Under the model proposed by the VA, an "EHR Custodial Agent" would be a centralized body regulating the open source EHR community. The RFI requests feedback on a proposed custodial agent model under which barrier to membership should be low. The custodial agent would be governed by a board, the RFI adds.

As part of the move to open source, the VA also plans to initiate a codebase modernization project; VistA is programmed with MUMPS, an obscure programming language that nonetheless has its defenders. One task of the open source community would be to undertake codebase refactoring projects, the RFI states.

For more:
- go to the VA RFI

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