Hagel And Shinseki May Rethink Integrated Health Record

Bob Brewin | Nextgov | March 20, 2013

I have picked up strong signals from multiple sources that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who took office on Feb. 27, has already met with Veterans Affairs chief Eric Shinseki, with the integrated electronic health record a key topic of their meeting.

When he served as deputy director of the Veterans Affairs Administration in 1982, Hagel stood out as a key backer of the nascent Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture, and his interest in electronic health records continues to this day.

On Feb. 6 Hagel’s predecessor, Leon Panetta, and Shinseki scrapped plans to develop the iEHR due to costs, but did say they planned to pursue less expensive technologies to make their respective systems more interoperable [...]