IPO Awards $11M iEHR Contract, DoD Demos EHRs

The Veterans Affairs and Defense Departments' interagency program office awarded a 12-month, $11 million contract Oct. 9 to Systems Made Simple--the same company that originally won the iEHR contract in 2012.

A statement from the company says the contract for management and technical support services will "facilitate full information interoperability between departments and improve functionality and efficiency for the DoD and VA combined beneficiary population."

"Interoperability" has been the preferred buzzword at DoD and VA since it began to de-emphasize full integration of VA's open source VistA EHR and DoD's new, yet-to-be-acquired health record. Rather than focus on an integrated electronic health record, the IPO is focused on creating a "common information interoperability framework to normalize data," said the IPO in a document obtained by FierceGovernmentIT back in July.