Defense Still Mulling Next Steps on Electronic Health Record
By
Bob Brewin
Progress on the project remains unclear.
Last Wednesday I asked the Pentagon and the Defense/Veterans Affairs Interagency Program Office charged with integrated electronic health record development when they plan to start the contracting process for commercial systems announced by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel on May 21, and who would run them.
I also asked for them to explain how Defense/VA would end up with a “seamless” and integrated EHR by the year’s end, as promised by Frank Kendall, undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, on May 22.
Today, Air Force Lt. Col. Melinda Morgan sent me a statement that shows the EHR and integration remains a work in progress:
She said Hagel has assigned AT&L “responsibility for developing and executing a plan to acquire and deploy interoperable health data records and to modernize the clinical software used throughout DoD. We will report on these plans when they are complete, to include program office roles, program names and IOC dates.”
The above, while appreciated, obviously does not provide much insight on the progress on a mega-billion project that has already been in the works for a decade.