DoD, VA award iEHR interoperability re-compete contract

Just when it seemed that the DoD’s advances toward selecting an electronic health record system of its own might actually squash the dream of an EHR integrated with the VA’s system, the departments awarded a re-compete of a contract for iEHR.

The Interagency Program Office (IPO) said on Wednesday that Systems Made Simple (SMS) won that contract, under which SMS “will provide systems integration and engineering support for executing the iEHR initiative,” according to a prepared statement.

SMS originally won the contract in 2012, under a one-year agreement that called for it to bid again in a process open to competing bids, according to a company spokesperson.

“Transitioning health records from one complex healthcare system to another involves unprecedented coordination of data and information between the DoD and the VA,” SMS wrote, explaining that it “will help ensure that clinicians can access one holistic health record for each military veteran.”