Meeting Overview

VistA Community Meetings are working meetings.

Ultimately, the agenda of a VistA Community Meeting is driven by the interests of the participants. The first session is a round table where the participants introduce themselves and state their objectives for the meeting. The meeting's tracks are then finalized and working groups are formed. The groups work independently (often in the same room), with regular plenary sessions to review progress. The following are the common activities of VistA Community Meetings.

• Software installation -- anyone who attends the meeting with a laptop or personal computer will have an opportunity to leave with the VistA open source free software (OSFS) stack installed on it. Attendees are invited to bring their personal computers with network cards and cables or WiFi cards.

• Development coordination -- there is ongoing VistA development in the VistA community outside the VA, and the VA provides regular updates of VistA. These parallel developments must be merged in order to keep VistA coherent.

• Education and information sharing -- although VistA is easy to use in a clinical setting, it is a tremendously capable system that takes expertise to configure and maintain. There is literally no one person who is expert in all aspects of VistA.

• Advocacy -- since VistA is in the public domain, there is no vendor with a large marketing budget to publicize and promote it. The economy around VistA is based on providing services. Thus, public advocacy of VistA plays a significant role in the effort to bring to society the benefits of VistA--a monumental and valuable project for which we have paid (and continue to pay) with our tax dollars.

The meetings are opportunities to work hard--individuals are often there late into the evening--and also to interact with others from around the country, and sometimes around the world, who share an interest in improving the quality and affordability of healthcare through the use of the VistA OSFS stack.

Agenda

A formal agenda will be posted soon.

Times: 9am - 5pm

The Boston meeting is organized around five tracks:

• VistA Classes -- Attendees interested in learning about VistA may choose from a suite of two-hour intensive classes on a variety subjects, including Essential VistA APIs, VistA Coding Techniques, CPRS Demo & Overview, VistA Business & Colinux, and more. If you would like to request or offer classes on other subjects, please contact Rick Marshall at WorldVistA.

• OpenVistA Installs -- Attendees interested in installing Linux, GT.M, and VistA on their laptops will have the chance to work together with volunteers to learn how to do this and to help document the process of installing and configuring OpenVistA.

• OpenVistA Programming Projects -- VistA programmers interested in working on OpenVistA will have a room, a network, collaborators, and projects to work on together.

• WorldVistA Strategy for 2005 -- WorldVistA members will brainstorm organizational strategy for the coming year.

• Special Sessions -- Representatives from government agencies and nonprofit organizations can request special sessions to discuss their plans and interests with WorldVistA.

+$HOROLOG = 60000 -- Saturday night (April 9th, 5:00-10:00 p.m.) the New England M Users' Group (NEMUG) is holding a thank-you celebration for MUMPS pioneers. Many of the VistA Community Meeting attendees have also registered to attend the NEMUG event. If you would like to join us there, you must register for it separately at the NEMUG website by March 12th.

Meeting Venue

InterSystems Corporation
World Headquarters
1 Memorial Drive (corner of Memorial and Wadsworth)
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 1-617-621-0600

Hotels

Cambridge Marriott
2 Cambridge Center (corner of Broadway & 3rd St.)
Boston, MA 02142
1-617-349-0700

To make your reservation at the group rate call Marriott at 800-228-9290 and ask for the WorldVistA block. You can also book on-line by clicking here.

There is also a Cambridge Marriott Residence Inn quite close, which is one block over from to the Marriott, which charges $127.00 per night for government employees. A few of us are staying there:

Residence Inn by Marriott
6 Cambridge Center
Cambridge, MA 02142
1-617-349-0700

The Royal Sonesta Hotel Boston is a 15 to 20 minute walk (~3/4 miles), a great place to stay when the weather is nice. They have some newly renovated but slightly smaller than normal rooms which you can get for $99.00 by asking for the "Individual Travelers Room Type":

Royal Sonesta Hotel Boston
5 Cambridge Parkway
Cambridge, MA 02142
1-617-806-4200

The Hotel Marlowe, which is a funky boutique hotel with all the modern conveniences, is across the street from the Royal Sonesta:

Hotel Marlowe
25 Edwin H. Land Blvd.
Cambridge, MA 02141
1-800-825-7140

The Hotel@MIT is also an option, though more distant:

Hotel@MIT
20 Sidney Street
Cambridge, MA 02139
1-617-577-0200

Public Documents

Donation

This conference is free of charge for anyone who wants to attend. However, WorldVistA asks that you consider making a $50.00 donation to help defray the cost of organizing this meeting. If you are interested in donating to WorldVistA, you may do so using the link below, or in person at the meeting, or you may mail a check or money order payable to WorldVistA to our treasurer's office:

WorldVistA Treasurer
PO Box 131912
Houston, TX 77219

WorldVistA is a nonprofit, public-benefit corporation, incorporated March 18, 2002 in the state of California, in the United States of America. We are organized and operated exclusively for educational, charitable, and scientific purposes as described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. On February 13, 2003 the U.S. Internal Revenue Service determined that we are exempt from federal income tax. Donations to WorldVistA are tax deductible.