Training centers

Vendors

Obviously, a vendor that installs your EHR ought to be able to supply training for your system.

WorldVistA

• WorldVistA Education Seminars

Online

• Astronaut is setting up online training resources, including a Moodle-based online curriculum.
• VistA Expertise Network -- Rick Marshall's group in Seattle
• VistA Software Document Library

Community Colleges

• Community College Consortia to Educate Health Information Technology Professionals in Health Care Program

Setting up a regional expertise network

• Regional Expertise Networks -- the benefits, resources, and methods for setting up a regional expertise network

Using VistA in a Health IT curriculum

There currently are several grants available to set up Health IT training curricula, at the university level, at the community college level, and as "Beacon Communities" (i.e. local expertise and training "extension" centers). WorldVistA allows an entire EHR simulation to be set up for free in a computer lab of a training institution or expertise training center. There is no other complex and comprehensive EHR system like it available for training (that is also free).

Solving problems related to networking, mobile access, security, access controls, interfaces with other systems (labs, PACS, etc.), health information exchange, and other common EHR "learning curve" issues can be done in a lab environment before a health IT student goes into the "real world" to work with production installations (whether VistA or other EHR systems).

Combined with a distance learning package that includes distance learning (using the free online-curriculum products Moodle or Claroline, for example), screencasts, webinars (using free products such as DimDim, BigBlue Button, or WebHuddle), and remote access to VistA servers in the teaching computer lab, a comprehensive Health IT curriculum even for remote students can be established. Here is a demo site of this (in development). Ubuntu-Med is a project with these components already assembled into an integrated package.

No other EHR allow this flexibility. Further, teaching resources can be shared freely with other educational institutions, expertise extension centers, the VA health system, and the rapidly growing number of hospitals, clinics, and practices installing VistA.

Because VistA uses the MUMPS database, which is also used in EPIC and GE Centricity (to name a few), education using VistA in a college curriculum is transferable to other EHR implementations, as well.

• VistA is one of 5 EHRs that are taught at the School of Health Informatics, University of Texas, Houston. (A distance learning pathway using Moodle is also available.)

• VistA is part of an extension program for EHRs at the University of California, San Diego.

Vistapedia

• (Smile)