November 1, 2008 - Peter Bodtke will begin VistA Tour through 8 Central American countries to promote awareness of the electronic healthcare information system.

Bodtke, Vice President of World VistA, traveling by motorcycle, will spend 3 months meeting with stakeholders and influencers in each of the Latin American countries along the 11,000 mile overland route.

VistA was developed by the US Veterans Administration to standardize and manage the health records of 8 million plus veterans at 1300 VA hospitals and health care sites plus 1.6 million individual using 600 healthcare sites in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The software was initially deployed 25 years ago. Through many years of iterations, VistA is now the most robust healthcare information system in use worldwide.

As VistA was developed with taxpayer dollars, its licensing cost to users is ZERO, i.e. the system can be deployed without incurring expensive licensing fees.