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--- userdocs:intro:preface [2017/08/07 17:43] – sslattery
+++ userdocs:intro:preface [2017/08/20 18:33] (current) – sslattery
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 ======What is VMIS?======
-The **V**eterinary **M**edical **I**nformation **S**ystem, 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.
+The **V**eterinary **M**edical **I**nformation **S**ystem, or //VMIS//, 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 a 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, medical records, client information, accounting and invoicing, employee management, and Hospital administration.
-%%[[Brief History of VMIS]]%%
+=====History=====
+====1985-2001 - The VAX====
+In the 1980s, the Hospital recognized that a paper-based system would not be sufficient to manage the ever-growing accounting and record keeping requirements of the Hospital. Invoicing and accounting combined were enough of a reason to look for a new system, though the addition of the large amount of patient and laboratory data made the needs of this system somewhat unique. With this in mind, the Hospital decided to look to a new computer-based system to manage Hospital operations. This type of computer system became known by the Hospital, as well as other teaching hospitals, as a Health Information System, or HIS. At that time, mainframe and mini-computers ruled the day while the concept of personal computers was still in its infancy. The Hospital chose to use what was, at the time, one of the most successful platforms as the hardware for its new computer system: a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroVAX|Digital MicroVAX 3900]]. This mini-computer, which became known in the Hospital as simply "the VAX," had an industry-wide reputation for its reliability and performance. Many other veterinary and human hospitals also adopted it as the platform of choice for patient record management. The software for the Hospital's VAX system was created by an in-house team of developers using a programming language and database called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUMPS|MUMPS]].
+The VAX/MUMPS system served as the Hospital's HIS for 16 years during which all of the patient, client, and referring veterinarian information, as well as the majority of the diagnostic test data, was collected and stored electronically. 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, or EMR, was formed, and a vision of a complete Electronic Medical Record System began to emerge.
+====2001-2015 - VMIS====
+In 1999, the Hospital recognized the need to modernize its record system and began development on a new system using updated technology to replace the VAX/MUMPS system. The design that was chosen is called a "Client/Server" system, which meant that the software part of the system would run on individual computers, or clients, while the database would run on a centralized server. This client software was developed using a programming language called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_Basic|Visual Basic 6]] with a product called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_SQL_Server|Microsoft SQL Server]] chosen to provide the centralized database. The Hospital named this new system the Veterinary Medical Information System, or VMIS. This name was chosen to convey the vision that this new system would be broader in scope than a traditional HIS. VMIS would have a complete EMR that would not only support patient management and hospital operations, but would become a tool for teaching and research in Veterinary Medicine. As time went by, new features, such as electronic forms, were added to support all of the Hospital's diagnostic labs and pharmacy, as well as most of the forms used for medical record keeping.
+====2015-Present - VMIS 2.0====
+In August of 2013, the development team once again set out to modernize VMIS. The Microsoft SQL Server database continued to function well and was a market-leader for database solutions, but Visual Basic 6 had become obsolete, causing continued development efforts to slow. Microsoft's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_Sharp_(programming_language)|C Sharp]] (C#) language was selected to replace Visual Basic as the programming language for the Windows software client. Over the next two years, the team reprogrammed the system in C#. The new system, known as VMIS 2.0, went online in January of 2015. When it went online, it was functionally equivalent to VMIS 1.0, but 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 continues to add enhancements to VMIS to improve the electronic medical record and new features, such as web portals and mobile applications, to provide better communications with clients and referring veterinarians.