VA/DoD iEHR Initiative: VA reconfirms its commitment to open source

The integrated electronic health record planned by the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments to jointly serve military personnel and veterans will cost $4 billion to develop and will go into service in stages from 2014 through 2017, according to Roger Baker, VA chief information officer.

Baker said the two departments intend to install a bare-bones iEHR in hospitals in San Antonio and the Hampton Roads, Va., area in 2014.

This basic system, Baker said will allow clinicians to tap into the existing Defense AHLTA, or Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application, and the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture, or VistA, electronic health record systems...

Baker said he and VA remain committed to open source architecture for developing medical record applications, despite a Pentagon report to Congress in April that emphasized the use of commercial software and gave only a passing nod to open source software.