VA CIO Describes Cloud, Blue Button and EHR Programs

The Veterans Affairs Department will spend $2.7 billion on IT this fiscal year and is making progress in several IT areas, Roger Baker, VA assistant secretary for information and technology, has said at an industry forum.About $800 million will be spent on IT by Sept. 30 to support VA Secretary Eric Shinseki’s 16 major programs that include reducing the veterans benefits claims backlog, eliminating veteran homelessness and automating education benefits. The initiatives extend through fiscal 2017. About $300 million already is obligated from this year’s allotment, Baker said.

Those programs, in addition to modernization of the “VistA” electronic health record system and its path toward a joint system with the Defense Department, indicate that the VA is transforming itself into a more efficient and effective agency, Baker, who also is CIO, said at the Input industry forum on VA IT acquisition held May 5.

VA's Roger Baker says VA and DOD health record systems will morph into a joint system“This is not small; it is billions of dollars, and thousands of people, turning around a tank battalion,” Baker said. With regard to cloud computing, Baker said at the first level, the VA has created an “internal cloud” for consolidating operation of the VistA EHR system in its data centers, rather than storing the information at hospitals. The VA hospitals do not care where the data is stored, or where the system operates, as long as it continues to operate effectively, he said.