Introduction of VistAWeb

Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) VistAWeb is an intranet web application used to review remote patient information found in VistA, the Federal Health Information Exchange (FHIE) system, and the Health Data Repository (HDR) databases. To a large extent, VistAWeb mirrors the reports behavior of the Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS) and Remote Data View (RDV). However, by permitting a more robust and timely retrieval of remote-site patient data, VistAWeb is also an enhancement to CPRS/RDV.

There are three ways to access VistAWeb. VistAWeb can be made available by adding it to the CPRS Tools Menu, and it can be selected as the default method of retrieving data from the Remote Data Available button in CPRS. These two methods are referred to as CPRS-spawned versions of VistAWeb. They are compliant with the Health Level 7 (HL7) Clinical Context Object Workgroup (CCOW) standards and therefore maintain context with the patient selected in CPRS. As a third option, VistAWeb can be accessed in a standalone mode by entering the uniform resource locator (URL) link (https://vistaweb.med.va.gov/) in the Internet Explorer address bar.

Note: Some links found in this installation guide go to sites or pages found on the VA intranet. These sites or pages are not accessible from outside the VA network.

The standalone version of VistAWeb is connected to neither CPRS nor the clinical context management application. Standalone VistAWeb serves an important function for users who have been granted special access to multiple sites, such as for National Programs, Veterans Administration (VA) researchers, and others. VistAWeb was also made available more broadly, though temporarily, to assist clinical staff with the retrieval of patient information from the sites affected by damage caused by hurricane Katrina.

Refer to the VistAWeb User Manual for a detailed description on access and use of VistAWeb from CPRS and as a standalone application process.

Assumptions

This installation guide is intended for system administrators (specifically, web administrators) who are assumed to possess the technical knowledge of how to configure and interact with application servers. This document also assumes the necessary security hardening guidelines have already been implemented. (Refer to the Office of Cyber and Information Security link below for information pertaining to security requirements.)

https://vaww.infoprotection.va.gov/portal/server.pt?open=17&objID=4283&DirMode=1&parentname=Dir&parentid=3&mode=2&in_hi_userid=2&cached=true

VistAWeb is not installed at each local site; it is installed on an application server. A link to the application may be incorporated into the existing CPRS Tools Menu at the local site. The instructions provided in this guide identify the required configuration settings for VistAWeb use from the CPRS Tools Menu. Additional reference material may be viewed in the CPRS GUI Technical Manual by selecting the following link:

http://www.va.gov/vdl/documents/Clinical/Comp_Patient_Recrd_Sys_(CPRS)/cprsguitm.pdf