VA's CISO moves on

Department of Veterans Affairs Chief Information Security Officer Brian Burns will be leaving the agency June 10, according to a departmental email obtained by FCW.

 Agency CIO LaVerne Council wrote that Burns was leaving for another agency, but did not specify which one.

"Brian joined VA in 2014 to lead our efforts toward interoperability. I appreciate his efforts in helping us to achieve interoperability with DoD. I will share more details about who will assume Brian’s responsibilities in the next few days."

Congress has made a priority of interoperability between electronic health records systems used by the Department of Defense and VA's homegrown VistA system (short for Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture).  VA officials assert that the two departments will have the systems fully integrated by 2018. But lawmakers will still be restricting funding until the VA can show that the electronic health data exchange between DOD, VA, and the private sector occurs without any glitches. 

Burns has been a leader on the interoperability effort since April 2015, as deputy director of the VA/DOD Interagency Program Office, a role he filled at the same time he served as CISO. Previously, he has held various positions at other agencies including the DOD, the departments of the Air Force, Navy, Education and elsewhere.

Burns' departure was first reported by MeriTalk.