HIT Consultant Blog: “…But bringing state-of-the-art technology to health care is expensive, often running well into eight figures. Still, there are ways to keep the cost down and also provide excellent care. Forbes caught up with David Whiles, CIO of Midland Memorial Hospital in Midland, Texas, to look at ways to save huge amounts of money without sacrificing quality…So what did you do? – We came across the VistA (Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture) system, which was developed by the Veterans Administration. That’s used by all the 160-plus VA hospitals in the United States, plus all of their outpatient ambulatory clinics. It’s been in use by the Veterans Administration for more than 20 years. It’s a very mature system. It’s won a number of accolades from the Institute of Medicine.” – Imagine that, open source software being used in a hospital. The software may be a few years old, but thinking outside the box and implementing open source software in a hospital sure sounds cutting edge to me. Where do I apply?