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What is Vistapedia?

Vistapedia is a wiki for several varieties of the public-domain version of the VA's VistA EHR software (WorldVistA, Medsphere's OpenVistA, FOIA VistA, and vxVistA). Information about the integrated VistA installer called Astronaut and the Indian Health Service' RPMS EHR is also contained within these pages.

This wiki covers installation and configuration of DHCP derivatives such as VistA, RPMS and CHCS. It also serves as an introduction to the VistA Documentation Library for everyone outside the VA. Current events, development advances, and other news about the flavors of VistA are also posted here.

This wiki runs the same software as Wikipedia and using it is similar to using Wikipedia.


Quick links:

Current events

The 20th VistA Community Meeting was larger and more energetic than before.

Software Downloads

Other Content


What is Vista?

VistA is a public-domain Electronic Health Record programmed by Federal (US) employees working for the Department of Veterans Affairs (previously Veterans Administration) for several decades. It is software in the public domain and is considered by many to be a national treasure.

For more info, see this page or the Wikipedia article on VistA.

The versions of VistA

There are several versions of VistA:

(Other versions such as da Vinci Vista, VOE Vista, and Hui Vista no longer exist or are no longer maintained.) Which VistA has more information on the different versions. The Software Downloads page also has pros and cons of each.

What is RPMS?

RPMS is a public domain Electronic Health Record that is used by the Indian Health Service (IHS). Prior to the 1980s it used a different architecture from VistA, but since the 80's it has shared a large amount of its architecture with VistA. It is strong in population-based and outpatient-based outcomes reporting. It is not currently available for download (because IHS has not made a FOIA Gold database available), but may be available in the future.

Installation Guides

Detailed Information

  • Meaningful Use Preliminary analysis of the complex and confusing requirements for stimulus payments by the US government.
  • How does VistA work? This is the technology that you need to understand about VistA even if you really do not want to understand technology.
  • Where do I Start? Start here. This page helps you find the information that you need, depending on what you are looking for.
  • FAQ Common Questions about VistA.
  • Popular pages acts as an automatically generated FAQ. Other visitors may be asking the same questions you are, so look here to see what they have viewed.
  • Special pages is a Table of Contents equivalent for Vistapedia itself.
  • VistA Community Challenges Technical features that VistA needs and issues that hold VistA development back. If VistA is not good enough for your environment, the reason should be listed here.

Other resources

VistA enthusisasts and developers connect through the HardHats Google Group. For more info email: info at worldvista dot org.

To get access to Vistapedia, contact David Whitten ( whitten at worldvista.org ) through an e-mail, or phone 713 870 3834 to get an account. Please send a contact telephone number with your e-mail, and/or have an e-mail address ready when you call. (I need both.) Please decide on your preferred User name and send it as well. We have provided a page for new users and their current status. Thank you.