The Veterinary Medical Information System, or VMIS, for short, is the medical record and information system used by the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH) in both the Small and Large Animal Hospitals. VMIS is custom system that is created and maintained in-house by the VMIS IT/Development team. This system includes components that cover nearly all aspects of Hospital operations, including patient information and records, client information and billing/invoices, employee management, and Hospital administration.

1985-2001 - The VAX

In the 1980’s it became clear that an electronic computer system was needed to manage the growing accounting and record keeping requirements of the hospital. Invoicing and accounting alone was enough of a reason to look to a computerized system to manage hospital operations. Adding to that was a large amount of patient and laboratory data that made our system somewhat unique. The unique nature of this type of computer system became to be known by us and other teaching hospitals as a Hospital Information System, or HIS. At this time, the “Personal Computer” revolution was in its’ infancy - mainframe and mini-computers ruled the day. The hospital chose one of the most successful platforms of the 80’s for its’ computer hardware: a Digital MicroVAX 3900 (known by us as “The VAX”). This mini-computer had an industry wide reputation for reliability and performance. Not only that, but many hospitals (veterinary and human) were adopting it as the platform of choice for patient record management. The software was built by an in-house team of developers using a programming language and database called MUMPS.

The VAX/MUMPS system served as our HIS for 16 years. During that period, all of the patient, client, and referring veterinarian information were collected electronically, as well as most of the diagnostic test results. Patient records were coded with diagnosis and procedure codes so that retrospective studies could be performed by searching the database. As features were gradually added, the basis of the Electronic Medical Record was formed, and a vision of a complete Electronic Medical Record (EMR) began to emerge.

2001-2015 - VMIS 1

In 1999, development began on a system to replace the VAX/MUMPS system with newer technology. The design that was chosen is referred to as a “Client/Server” system, which means that part of the software runs on a Windows computer, and the other part runs on a centralized database server. The client was written in Visual Basic 6 programming language, with Microsoft SQL Server database functioning as the server. We named the new system VMIS, for Veterinary Medical Information System. The name was chosen to convey the vision of a future system that was broader in scope than a traditional HIS. With a complete EMR, the future system would not only support patient management and hospital operations, but become a tool for teaching and research in Veterinary Medicine. Over the years, electronic forms were added to VMIS to support all of the hospital's diagnostic labs and pharmacy, as well as most of the forms used for medical record keeping.

January 2015 - VMIS 2

In August of 2013, the development team once again set out to modernize the system. Although the Microsoft SQL Server database continued to function well and was a market-leader, Visual Basic 6 had become obsolete, causing continued development efforts to slow. The C Sharp was selected to replace Visual Basic as the programming language for the Windows client. Over the next two years, the team reprogrammed the system in C Sharp. The new system, known as VMIS 2, went online in January of 2015. This system was functionally equivalent to VMIS 1, with minor visual enhancements.

Today

Today, VMIS contains almost 3 million medical record documents, images, and lab tests for over 300,000 animals and 200,000 clients. The Hospital is continuing to add enhancements to VMIS to improve the electronic medical record and provide better communications with clients, referring veterinarians through web portals and mobile applications.