Dana Blankenhorn

Rethinking Healthcare

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VA scandal gives proprietary software a bad name

By Dana Blankenhorn | Aug 24, 2009 |

After launching ZDNet Healthcare one of the first trends I covered was the concern of former VA employees over the agency’s move from its homegrown VistA software to contracts with proprietary vendors.

This was done against the backdrop of a doubling of the VA’s IT budget. The budget is continuing to rise.

It may have been that arguments over open source vs. proprietary solutions were the tip of the iceberg.

VA Watchdog got the exclusive story last week, two reports from the VA’s Inspector General detailing charges that former VA CIO Robert Howard was having an affair with a subordinate and that his own personal assistant was employing relatives at the agency.

The subordinate, Katherine Adair Martinez, remains a deputy assistant secretary. The personal assistant retired in April.

The report is heavily redacted, and the agency’s review is continuing.

The reports “are both worth reading if you want to get a look at what can only be called corruption at the highest levels of the VA,” writes Larry Scott of VA Watchdog.

The reports also put a different gloss over current debates within the agency over a 2007 contract to Cerner for upgrading the VA’s lab computers to its PathNet system.

Contracting, by its nature, offers many opportunities for corruption of all kinds. A do it yourself approach may be corruptible, but at the end of the day you own what you have made, and whatever you think of the software the development of the VA’s VistA software has not been a school for scandal.

With the rise of open source this make-or-buy decision is faced by all levels of government. It’s separate from any questions regarding health reform. Should government agencies be building their own software platforms using open source tools or contracting that work out to proprietary vendors?

Contractors can still be hired under an open source model, but the software that emerges from that contract is owned by the agency, and can be shared through an open source license with state and local governments, even with businesses and individuals. Questions of compatibility, and interoperability, become transparent and easier to solve.

Vendors will often claim their tools are ready-made, but some customization is almost always required.

It is time to ask the question. Who should own the govenment’s health care code?

 
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  •  
    1

    as901

    08/25/09 | Report as spam

    RE: VA scandal gives proprietary software a bad name

    Vista, like all Microsoft software, is unstable and less secure than Linux based software. Almost every Forbes 100 corporation uses Linux based servers.

    By all means stop the corruption. As a veteran I can attest the the corruption and insane VA system, but do not throw out the baby with the bath water!

    Open source software such as Linux is safer and more secure.Punish the corrupt? Yes Give up a better software? No! No! No!

  •  
    2

    astro_z

    08/26/09 | Report as spam

    VistA isn't Vista

    > Vista, like all Microsoft software, is unstable and less secure than ...

    Ummm.. the "VistA" the article was mentioning is "Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture", not the soon-obsolete Microsoft OS.

    See: http://www.va.gov/VISTA_MONOGRAPH

    (that should have been obvious from the context and VistA casing, but knee-jerks are hard to resist, aren't they?)

  •  
    3

    hurricane_dave

    08/29/09 | Report as spam

    RE: VA scandal gives proprietary software a bad name

    I work for a government agency as an information systems analyst.
    Our department has been trying to move to a software package with a
    dual open-source and commercial license for managing all of our
    content while our larger IT group has been trying to get us to use the
    system that they put together for a whole lot of money. That system
    is proprietary, inflexible, brittle and can't be modified without bringing
    on more expensive consultants. We already have a few people with
    Java and .NET programming experience in our organization, yet they
    haven't been allowed to modify a line of code. The consultants also
    will give vague answers and complain about changing specs when
    they are asked to add certain features that we can use to plug in to
    the system--like web services APIs. Also, while IT has been telling
    us one thing, we have been getting reports of things not working so
    well by people in other parts of the organization. The whole reason for
    this monstrosity is politics; that is sad. There are a whole lot of open-
    source tools that would've worked if the people higher up had
    consulted with the information systems people in our agency that
    already use those tools. It would've cost a whole lot less and it
    would've better served the information needs of our organization.
    Open-source may not a panacea out of the box but the consultants
    can't hide things when you have the source code and people who
    actually work in the organization can be trained to modify the code as
    well.

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Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for nearly 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the Interactive Age Daily for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age's "NetMarketing" supplement, and dozens of other publications over the years.

Dana Blankenhorn

Dana Blankenhorn has been a technology reporter since 1982, a business reporter since 1978, and a writer for as long as he can remember. His Schwab IRA has a few tech stocks in it, most notably some Intel and Applied Materials bought over 10 years ago. But the vast majority of his tiny fortune (emphasis on the word tiny) is invested in mutual funds. He presently writes for no one else but ZDNet, SmartPlanet and himself. But if you've got an opportunity let him know. If he takes the gig he"ll first add it to this disclosure page.
Rethinking Healthcare examines innovation in the health care industry covering topics such as electronic and personal health records, treatment, privacy, regulation and using information technology to manage and monitor chronic conditions.

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