Electronic Health Record (EHR)

See the following -

VA and VistA: Can they be fixed?

Aisha Chowdhry | FCW | July 27, 2016

pivoting away from VistA, the agency's homegrown electronic health record system, would be a major shift for the VA. Former VA CIO Roger Baker said VistA is the only EHR designed by doctors, not technologists. "That is the real power of VistA, and it remains the real power of VistA," he added. The system, rooted in 1970s code, is designed to assist doctors in their daily work. Providers at the various VA medical facilities nationwide customize it for their specific needs.

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VA Announces New Veterans Health Application Programming Interface

Press Release | US Department of Veterans Affairs | December 7, 2018

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently launched its first Health Application Programming Interface (API) that will power the next generation of Blue Button features by enabling Veterans to interact with their own personal health data within innovative mobile and web-based apps. Introduced on Dec. 4, at the White House Executive Forum on Healthcare Data Interoperability, Health APIs will power the next generation of Blue Buttonfeatures by enabling Veterans to interact with their own personal health data within innovative mobile and web-based apps. Sponsored by the White House Office of American Innovation, the forum brought together senior health care leaders from both the public and private sectors. Health APIs will also support new clinician-focused applications, and can also serve as a foundation for data sharing between health systems to support Veteran care.

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VA CIO Stephen Warren on The State of Open Source at the VA

Stephen Warren, the acting VA CIO was recently interviewed on the topic of giving continuity to an open source initiative started by the previous CIO Roger Baker. The VA CIO oversees more than 8,000 IT professionals and manages an annual budget of $3.3 billion. When interviewed at WJLA in the ABC channel, Mr. Warren shared the following insights. Read More »

VA Clinical Scheduling Contest Winners Announced

The VA just announced the three winners of their innovative Medical Appointment Scheduling Contest. The winners are, in first place, Health eTime by MedRed, LLC, in second place, OH Scheduler by Oroville Hospital, and in third place is the HP Open Community Team Submission which was put together by a team of open source developers led by HP. These were judged to be the top three systems out of a total field of 41 entries submitted by June 13th of this year. Read More »

VA Details Plans to Replace Medical-Scheduling Platform

Brian T, Horowitz | eWeek | January 4, 2012

The Department of Veterans Affairs has launched an initiative to replace the medical-scheduling component of its electronic health record platform and is requesting proposals for how to update and rebuild the application. The Medical Scheduling Package (MSP) is part of the VA's Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) EHR platform. Read More »

VA giving DoD 'time and space' on iEHR

Molly Bernhart Walker | FierceGovernmentIT | April 29, 2013

As Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel gets up to speed on the integrated electronic health record, the Veterans Affairs Department is helping provide him with information he needs to make decisions on the project's future, said VA's Acting Chief Information Officer Stephen Warren during an April 25 press call. Read More »

VA Investigation: No Proof That Falsified Data Led to Vets' Deaths

Staff | iHealthBeat | August 26, 2014

Claims that 40 veterans might have died because of delayed care and manipulated waiting lists at a Department of Veterans Affairs health center in Phoenix, Ariz., are unsubstantiated, according to an internal investigation, the New York Times reports. Read More »

VA Is Competing for the Pentagon’s Electronic Health Record Contract

Bob Brewin | Nextgov | March 13, 2014

The Veterans Affairs Department plans to enter its next generation electronic health record into the competition for the Defense Department’s EHR job, VA Secretary Eric Shinseki told a hearing of the House Veterans Affairs Committee Thursday. Read More »

VA Open Source Group Names Board of Health IT Experts

Mary Mosquera | Government Health IT | March 7, 2012

The open source organization that the Veterans Affairs Department created to accelerate innovation in its VistA electronic health record software and to support its integrated EHR system with the Defense Department has established a guiding board of IT luminaries. The Open Source Electronic Health Record Agent (OSEHRA) promotes open, modular architecture that uses non-proprietary standard Read More »

VA Plans To Launch Health App Store

Anne Zieger | HealthcareDIVE | September 10, 2014

The Veterans Affairs Department has set plans to kick off the first two of several mHealth apps designed to give vets easier and quicker access to healthcare data...

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VA Plans to Tap Original Bidders for Canceled Software Contract

Staff | Nextgov | March 2, 2012

The Veterans Affairs Department plans to select a new vendor from the pool of original bidders to develop software vital to creating an integrated electronic health record (iEHR) with the Defense Department. The new contractor will replace ASM Research, the company first awarded the $102.6 million contract VA abruptly terminated Tuesday due to conflict-of-interest concerns. Read More »

VA Readies Scheduling RFP

Dan Verton | FedScoop | November 14, 2014

The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to release the long-awaited request for proposals next week for the replacement to its patient scheduling system, the agency’s chief information officer confirmed today.

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VA Releases Open Source Policy Memorandum

The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has just made public an executive policy memorandum that mandates a thorough evaluation of "Open Source Software (OSS) solutions when [the] VA acquires software." The policy also calls for the Federal agency to consider the use of open source "development practices when VA develops software." The release of this policy places the VA as the leader in government agencies innovating through the use of open source software.

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VA Researching Natural Language Processing In EHRs To Prevent Suicide

Ashley Gold | Fierce HealthIT | September 12, 2013

The U.S. Department of Veterans affairs is researching the use of natural language processing within its electronic health records system to automate suicide risk alerts.

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VA Seeks 7 Percent IT Budget Boost, Passes on Defense Health Record Hosting

Bob Brewin | Nextgov | February 13, 2012

After two years without an increase, the Veterans Affairs Department requested a $3.37 billion information technology budget in 2013, up $216 million, or slightly less than 7 percent, from $3.11 billion in 2012. Just over $2 billion or 62 percent of that budget would be devoted to health care systems deployed to 152 department hospitals. Read More »