VA Announces $9 Million Open Source Development Contest
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) wants to improve the system veterans currently use to schedule appointments in the VA’s sprawling nationwide health program by moving to an open source system.
To hopefully inspire more innovative solutions, the VA has launched the VA Medical Appointment Scheduling System Contest with up to $9 million in prizes.
The registration deadline is May 13, 2013, and up to three winners will be announced on September 30, 2013.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki commented:
This contest marks a major change in direction by VA, away from software that is so customized that only VA can use it, toward open standards and commercial systems that build on proven practices. The competition will help us serve Veterans by encouraging ideas to provide more personalized care.
What prompted the move to open source? According to Nextgov, “In March 2009, after spending $167 million over eight years with no viable software to show for it, the VA cancelled its previous replacement system for scheduling new patients. The department tacitly acknowledged the debacle today when it said the contest ‘will allow it to reduce the risks inherent in procurement and deployment of a replacement medical scheduling product.’”
The VA will award as many as three prizes for the creation of an open-source and open application program interface (API)-based system to replace components of the VA’s twenty-five-year-old scheduling software in its VistA electronic health system. Proprietary, commercial systems are eligible for prizes, but all entries in the contest will be required to have open connections or APIs.
The VA’s Veterans Health Administration operates one of the largest integrated health delivery systems in the United States, delivering care to approximately six million veterans. Veterans scheduled approximately eighty million outpatient clinical visits—more than 300,000 each working day in 2011.
So tell us—Will you be participating in this contest?
