Loren Thompson

See the following -

DoD Healthcare Exec Pushes $11 Billion IT Upgrade, But Unwittingly Reveals Why It Won’t Work

Loren B. Thompson | Lexington Institute | April 8, 2015

On March 25, the program executive overseeing a proposed modernization of the military healthcare records system testified before the Senate’s defense appropriations subcommittee. Christopher A. Miller urged committee members to support a costly upgrade to the way in which the healthcare records of military personnel and their dependents are stored and shared — which at a projected price-tag of $11 billion will be the biggest investment in an electronic health record system ever undertaken. If past experience with such IT projects is any indication it will end up costing a lot more, but that’s not the real problem. The real problem, as Miller unwittingly revealed in his testimony, is an acquisition strategy that can’t deliver what the department needs... Read More »

DoD: New EHR not about interoperability with VA

Tom Sullivan | Healthcare IT News | July 30, 2015

When Defense Department officials briefed reporters prior to announcing that the Cerner, Leidos and Accenture team won its EHR modernization contract, they were adamant that so much speculation about the DoD’s ability to share patient information with the Department of Veterans Affairs had been unfounded. "There is not a big interoperability problem with the VA and DoD today," said Frank Kendall, DoD Under Secretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. "It’s a big misconception out there that this software system we’re buying is about interoperability." Read More »

Is DoD's EHR modernization bound to fail?

Jack McCarthy | Healthcare IT News | July 28, 2015

...some are saying the system, the most expensive EHR investment of its kind, is bound for failure, while others suggest the contract itself should be delayed pending further review. Thomas J. Verbeck, a CIO and a retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general, recently wrote that sharing data is essential for the DoD because it will speed healthcare delivery and save lives, as well as reduce healthcare costs, prevent medical errors and avoid unnecessary testing. "But the DoD's plan will fail," Verbeck wrote in The Fayetteville Observer. "That's because most of today's EHR systems, including the bidder finalists, are designed only to work within their own system.

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Why DoD EHR Modernization Will Fail

Susan D. Hall | FierceHealthIT | April 10, 2015

As the U.S. Department of Defense zeroes in on determining which bidding group will be awarded the coveted contract to modernize its electronic health record system, Loren Thompson, COO at the nonprofit Lexington Institute, says the effort is doomed to fail. As evidence, he uses the words that Christopher A. Miller, the program executive overseeing the project, used in testimony before the Senate's defense appropriations subcommittee. Read More »