News

Summaries of open source, health care, or health IT news and information from various sources on the web selected by Open Health News (OHNews) staff. Links are provided to the original news or information source, e.g. news article, web site, journal,blog, video, etc.

See the following -

DOD Announces EHR Interoperability Progress, Requests Input

Jennifer Bresnick | EHR Intelligence | February 7, 2014

The Department of Defense isn’t taking its spate of Congressional spankings lying down.  After more than a year of continuous criticism over its lack of progress on EHR interoperability during its will-they-won’t-they romance with the Department of Veterans Affairs, a series of optimistic press releases show the DOD’s commitment to rehabbing its image while it seems to finally be getting the project on track. Read More »

DoD Awards Contract For Vendor Neutral Patient Image Archive

Anthony Brino | Government Health IT | November 16, 2012

The Department of Defense is contracting with the Bloomington, Minnesota-based software and data management firm Acuo Technologies to manage a vendor-neutral patient image archive, in a deal worth $40 million over nine years. Read More »

DoD Awards Contract To Improve Theater EHR AHLTA

Kyle Murphy | EHR Intelligence | November 6, 2012

The Department of Defense (DOD) is investing significantly in enhancements to its Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application-Theater (AHLTA -T), according to BusinessWire. Read More »

DoD Chastised For Role In VA Claims Backlog

Patricia Kime | Army Times | April 16, 2013

Under fire from Congress for the Defense Department’s contributing role in the Veterans Affairs Department’s disability claims morass, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told House lawmakers Tuesday that DoD is “restructuring” relevant offices and responsibilities to ensure quicker delivery of medical records to VA. Read More »

DoD Chastised For Role In VA Claims Backlog

Patricia Kime | Army Times | April 16, 2013

Under fire from Congress for the Defense Department’s contributing role in the Veterans Affairs Department’s disability claims morass, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told House lawmakers Tuesday that DoD is “restructuring” relevant offices and responsibilities to ensure quicker delivery of medical records to VA. Read More »

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

Jared Serbu | Federal News Radio | May 23, 2013

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. Read More »

DOD Cooperation Accelerating VA Claims Handling

Karen Parrish | My San Antonio | July 16, 2013

Senior officials from the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs assured Congress July 10 that they are closing in on solutions that will alleviate the backlog of veterans' health benefit claims and streamline processing of current and future claims. Read More »

DOD Decides To Keep Legacy EHR Until At Least 2018

Jennifer Bresnick | EHR Intelligence | January 3, 2014

The Department of Defense is officially sticking with its tried-and-true AHLTA electronic health records system for at least the next four or five years according to a recently released procurement document. [...] Read More »

DoD Decision On VistA Disappointing

David Perera | FierceGovernmentIT | June 3, 2013

The Defense Department announcement last month that it will move forward with plans to acquire a commercial electronic health record is disappointing, if not unexpected. Read More »

DoD EHR Contract: Open Source Vs. Commercial

David F. Carr | Information Week | October 31, 2014

Pricewaterhouse Coopers and partner firms urge Department of Defense to consider open source VistA for EHR contract, vying against IBM/Epic and other commercial contenders. Read More »

DOD Electronic Health Records Help VA Disability Claims

Press Release | Department of Defense (DoD) | February 6, 2014

The Defense Department has made troops’ health records electronically available to the Veterans Affairs Department to speed up the adjudication of disability claims, a DOD health information technology official said. Read More »

DoD Gives Industry Homework Around e-health Records, Intel IT Services

Jason Miller | Federal News Radio | October 9, 2013

Despite the government shutdown, the Defense Department is giving industry some homework. Read More »

DoD Has Earned EHR Oversight

David Perera | FierceGovernmentIT | July 15, 2013

Oversight is cumbersome and time-consuming. It may sap resources and make project management paranoid and overly-cautious. But when it comes to attempts to make a joint [EHR] between the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, Defense lacks much standing to argue that House-proposed oversight isn't warranted... Read More »

DOD Isn’t Ready To Let Go Of Legacy EHR Just Yet

Jennifer Bresnick | Government Health IT | November 6, 2013

The Department of Defense may be flirting with commercial EHR vendors, but they’re not ready to commit to an off-the-shelf product just yet.  In a request for information released this week, the Defense Health Agency indicated that it is looking for support of its Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application (AHLTA) through 2018 [...]. Read More »

DoD Loses Control Of Health IT Budget After Fumbling iEHR

Jennifer Bresnick | EHR Intelligence | May 1, 2013

The Pentagon has taken away the Military Health System’s toys after MHS leaders failed to play nice with billions of dollars allotted to developing an integrated EHR with the Department of Veterans Affairs... Read More »