Department of Defense (DoD)

See the following -

"Another Walter Reed-Type Scandal"

Niko Karvounis | Mother Jones | September 14, 2008

Soldiers at the military hospital languished in part due to incompatible databases and dismal record keeping. Welcome to the Pentagon's $20 billion medical-records boondoggle. Read More »

A Ransomware Epidemic And An Overdue National Health IT Safety Center

Dean Sittig and Hardeep Singh | Health Affairs Blog | July 29, 2016

A rapid increase in computerization of health care organizations (HCOs) around the world has raised their profile as lucrative targets for cyber-criminals. Recently there has been a spate of high-profile ransomware attacks involving hospitals’ electronic health record (EHR) data.Briefly, ransomware attacks commonly start when a user is conned into clicking an internet link or opening a malicious email attachment. Malware, or software that is intended to damage or disable the computer, is then downloaded and rapidly encrypts data on that computer and attempts to reach out to other computers on the same network to encrypt data on those computers as well; consequently, all encrypted data is inaccessible...

Read More »

Audit: DOD E-Health Timeline 'Not Realistic'

Billy Mitchell | Fed Scoop | June 1, 2016

The Pentagon inspector general doesn't think the DOD can reach initial operational capability of its new $9 billion, "state-of-the-art" electronic health records system by December. The Defense Department's goal of having a pilot of its modernized electronic health record platform running by the year's end "may not be realistic," its inspector general said Wednesday...

Read More »

DoD Electronic Health Records Help VA Disability Claims

Press Release | Department of Defense (DoD) | February 6, 2014

The Defense Department has made troops’ health records electronically available to the Veterans Affairs Department to speed up the adjudication of disability claims, a DoD health information technology official said. Read More »

Having Already Failed Once, DoD Snubs Open Source For Second EMR Try

Anne Zieger | EMR and EHR | August 28, 2012

In theory, the VA now has everything it needs to standardize and upgrade the open source VistA EMR, especially after forming the Open Source Electronic Health Record Agent (OSEHRA) organization.  But when it comes to bringing that expertise to the DoD’s EMR projects, it seems OSEHRA alone can’t do the trick. Read More »

New VA Partnership for Electronic Health Information Exchange

Sara Heath | EHR Intelligence | November 11, 2016

The Department of Veterans Affairs, Social Security Administration (SSA), and The Sequoia Project’s eHealth Exchange have partnered to exchange electronic health information for veterans looking to apply for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits, according to a press release. The health data exchange, which will be hosted on VA’s Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER), will help process VA patient requests for social security disability benefits...

Read More »

VA Claims Backlog Saddles Disabled Veterans

Mitch Shaw | Standard-Examiner | February 5, 2014

Department of Veterans Affairs officials say they want to end their massive benefits backlog for disabled veterans by next year, but a new study says progress on the initiative has stalled. Read More »

VA Stops Releasing Data On Injured Vets As Total Reaches Grim Milestone [EXCLUSIVE]

Jamie Reno | International Business Times | November 1, 2013

The United States has likely reached a grim but historic milestone in the war on terror: 1 million veterans injured from the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. But you haven't heard this reported anywhere else. Why? Because the government is no longer sharing this information with the public. Read More »

Who's To Blame When IT Systems Fail?

Joseph Marks | Nextgov | October 11, 2013

When it comes to government technology, assigning responsibility can be tricky. Read More »

28th VistA Community Meeting: VistA Community Coming Together

Years of efforts dedicated to unifying the VistA community as well as VistA code development effort bore fruit during the 28th VistA Community Meeting (VCM) on January 17-19 in Sacramento, CA.  This year's conference became a transition to a closer collaboration between the VistA community, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and the non-profit OSEHRA organization. In effect, the conference was more of a workshop where the participants briefed each other on the latest technical developments as well as strategic efforts to increase collaboration.

Read More »

3 Ways DoD And VA Are Accelerating Patient Data Exchange Via iEHR

Tom Sullivan | Government Health IT | February 6, 2013

Whereas the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments are working toward a joint iEHR that would, come 2017, wrap all patient data into a single record accessible to clinicians in both departments, DoD Secretary Leon Panetta and VA’s Secretary Eric Shinseki pushed their staffs to accelerate data exchange and interoperability where they can now, rather than waiting. Read More »

3Rs For Innovating Novel Antibiotics: Sharing Resources, Risks, And Rewards

Anthony D So, Quentin Ruiz-Esparza, Neha Gupta, Otto Cars | BMJ | April 3, 2012

The stream of new antibiotics is struggling to keep up with emerging bacterial resistance. Anthony So and colleagues examine what can be done to increase innovation... Read More »

5 Problematic HIT Projects Costing The Government Billions

Dan Bowman | FierceHealthIT | July 26, 2013

Cost overruns and missed deadlines for several federal agency health technology projects are costing the government "billions of dollars," according to a Government Accountability Office report focusing on the inefficiency of agency IT initiatives published Thursday. Read More »

A Better Way Forward

Jeff Millter | TIME | October 1, 2012

The recent headline on the Drudge Report screamed, MORE AMERICANS NOW COMMIT SUICIDE THAN DIE IN CAR CRASHES. In a Wall Street Journal opinion article last week, we read about the life of Peter Wielunski, a veteran who, while receiving care from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS), took his own life. Another life cut short quite possibly by invisible wounds of war. Read More »

A Layer Above It All: Healtheway’s Value Prop

John Moore | Chilmark Research | October 25, 2012

Now that NwHIN has been spun-out into the public-private entity Healtheway one has to wonder exactly what value they can deliver to market that will sustain them as they attempt to ween themselves from the federal spigot. Healtheway has no lack of challenges ahead but they intend to target one area that presents an interesting opportunity. Question is: Are they too early to market? Read More »