VA CIO Clarifies Plans For iEHR

Dan Bowman | FierceEMR | February 12, 2013

In the wake of criticism following news last week that the Departments of Veterans and Defense will abandon plans to build a joint electronic health record system from the ground up, VA CIO Roger Baker is clarifying that the two departments still plan to create a joint record.

"Rumors of [the integrated EHR's] demise have been greatly exaggerated," Baker told Government Health IT in an email. "We remain committed to the common data, application and GUI standards we committed to at the start of the program."

FierceEMR reported last week about the decision to cancel plans to create a joint iEHR from scratch, noting, as Baker said, that the VA and DoD will move forward with development of an iEHR using existing solutions.