DoD Chooses Interoperability Over Integration For New E-Health Record System

The Defense Department still is a long way from picking a successor to its aging electronic health record system. But the Pentagon said Wednesday that whatever it settles on, it's committed to open data standards, and proprietary solutions are off limits.

And it's also leaving its door cracked to adopting a system akin to that used by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

A month ago, Defense secretary Chuck Hagel ordered a pause in DoD's health care record modernization plan, telling Congress at the time that he didn't think the department "knew what the hell it was doing." That pause is now over.

In a memo Tuesday, he told the department to move forward with a full and open competition to select a new health record system. He also made Frank Kendall, the department's top acquisition official, personally in charge of the effort.