Re: Thoughts on the Monthly Presentation: Mike Baker and the VA Software

This was in fact my plan, to give a brief history because that helps
to explain how the software was developed and why it encompasses so
much configuration just to get a system installed and ready to be
used.

Then give a very brief demonstration of the software from the live CD,
using both the terminal and the windows client software running under
wine. Any thing beyond that will be overwhelming for me and most
certainly boring to anyone not involved in health care.

My main purpose in doing this at all is to somehow give something back
to this group. I have learned a lot by reading posts from this group
and I have used things I learned here at my job where I am moving the
VA towards using Linux and other open source software. I also am
proud of the software the VA has produced and would like to see it
considered and promoted when computer professionals are asked for
opinions on medical records software.

On 9/7/07, Fielder George Dowding <fgdowding@iceworm-enterprises.org> wrote=
:
> Yesterday Stanly Long arranged a meeting with Mike Baker of the VA
> Clinic here in Anchorage to discuss his presentation of the Veterans
> Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VISTA). Stanly
> invited Doug MacLean and me along, and we all got together in Mike's
> office about 1230. We spent about an hour listening and asking questions
> along with a demonstration of the Windows interface to the system by
> Rich Moran (not sure of the last name).
>
> The VA-VistA (to distinguish it from the Johnny-come-lately's use of the
> name) is a very large body of free (as in freedom) software that has
> been under development for well over 20 years. Thus, a single Friday
> night presentation can hardly cover this important and timely move by
> the VA to make VistA freely available as free software to the world
> (Mike specifically mentioned Mexico as one of the adopters).
>
> Thus, I suggest Mike be asked to make his presentation a very brief over
> view covering the history, platforms, availability, and perhaps a
> demonstration of the live CD. The demonstration of the Windows interface
> was interesting, but I would rather keep focus on the free software for
> the initial presentation.
> --
> Mit freundlichen Gr=FC=DFen / Best regards Debian/GNU Linux
> Fielder George Dowding, Chief Iceworm "etch" Testing
> dba Iceworm Enterprises, Anchorage, Alaska User Number 269482
> Since 1976 - Over 30 Years of Service. "Seth" 186667
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Received on Fri Sep 7 14:14:25 2007