VA/Defense Agree on Common Health Records System

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said today he and Defense Secretary Robert Gates reached an agreement on development of a common electronic health record (EHR) system on March 17.

Shinseki, speaking at a hearing of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he and Gates had agreed to "merge our capabilities to come up with a common [EHR] platform," but provided few details.

I've heard that the common system will be based on the VA's open source approach to modernization of its decades-old Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture announced last month.

I'll have more info on this watershed agreement in a story that will be posted in our news columns later today.