Robert McDonald

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New VA Partnership for Electronic Health Information Exchange

Sara Heath | EHR Intelligence | November 11, 2016

The Department of Veterans Affairs, Social Security Administration (SSA), and The Sequoia Project’s eHealth Exchange have partnered to exchange electronic health information for veterans looking to apply for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits, according to a press release. The health data exchange, which will be hosted on VA’s Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record (VLER), will help process VA patient requests for social security disability benefits...

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VA to Kick Off Hunt For New Patient Scheduling System Next Month

Jack Moore | Nextgov | August 26, 2014

The Department of Veterans Affairs is seeking a “cutting-edge” commercial, off-the-shelf scheduling system to replace the clunky legacy module that helped mire the agency in controversy over long wait times faced by veterans seeking care. By the end of September, VA plans to issue a solicitation for a new system to manage the scheduling of veterans’ medical appointments. Read More »

13 Things That Are About To Change At VA

Jonathan Lutton, Troy K. Schneider | FCW | July 31, 2014

The Veterans' Access to Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act passed the House on July 30 with a vote of 420 to 5.  The Senate followed suit, 91 to 3, on July 31, and the president's signature is all but assured...

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Fresh Start At The VA

Alvin Powell | Harvard Gazette | November 25, 2014

U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) Robert McDonald says the troubled agency is making slow progress in getting its house in order, citing more — and more timely — appointments and authorizations to see private doctors for veterans who live far from VA hospitals...

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House Approves $16.3-Billion Veterans Affairs Overhaul Bill

Rebecca Bratek | Los Angeles Times | July 30, 2014

By a 420-5 vote, the House on Wednesday approved a $16.3-billion compromise bill to overhaul the Veterans Affairs Department and speed up veterans’ access to healthcare.  The reform measure still needs to be approved by the Senate before it can be sent to the president’s desk...

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New VA Secretary Sets Sights On Major Agency Reforms

Dan Verton | FedScoop | September 8, 2014

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald outlined for the first time Monday his strategic vision for a new, efficient and innovative VA that is no longer hamstrung by old-fashioned hierarchy and a complex maze of websites and systems that prevent veterans from accessing VA medical services...

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No Link Found for Deaths and Veterans’ Care Delays

Richard A. Oppel, Jr. | New York Times | August 25, 2014

An investigation by the watchdog office for the Department of Veterans Affairs has been unable to substantiate allegations that 40 veterans may have died because of delays in care at the veterans medical center in Phoenix, according to a letter from the new secretary of Veterans Affairs. Read More »

Obama Backs 15 of 18 VA Commission Recommendations

Aisha Chowdhry | FCW | September 6, 2016

President Barack Obama is backing 15 of the 18 recommendations made by the Commission on Care to improve service delivery at the Department of Veterans Affairs. However, he is resisting a bid to revise the way the VA's health care system is run. The recommendations are included in the commission's final report...

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Obama Nomine Makes her Case to Take Over Tech at VA

Adam Mazmanian | Adam Mazmanian | May 19, 2015

LaVerne H. Council, the private-sector IT consultant and former Fortune 50 CIO who is President Barack Obama's pick to take over the Office of Information and Technology at the Department of Veterans Affairs, told lawmakers May 5 how she planned to manage the VA's technology team and its $4.2 billion in annual tech spending. Read More »

OSEHRA 2014: VISTA Expertise Network and OSEHRA Join Forces for Technical Town Hall

Press Release | OSEHRA, VISTA Expertise Network | July 15, 2014

The Open Source Electronic Health Record Alliance (OSEHRA) and the VISTA Expertise Network announced today that they will collaborate in a special technical meeting regarding the future of the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA), the electronic health record system utilized by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and other healthcare providers worldwide. Read More »

OSEHRA 2016 Summit to Address Global Open Health IT Issues as well as the Future of VistA, eHMP and the VA's Veteran's Centric Strategy

The 2016 OSEHRA Summit to be held June 27-29 is sixty days away, and we are very excited about the way it has come together...We will open the Summit on Monday afternoon with the Global Open Health Informatics Workshop. There we will hear about the progress of many programs, including those in India, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Slovenia and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. This workshop will also address technical issues supporting the global deployment of open source EHRs.

Sorry VistA, DoD's health record won't be open source

Molly Bernhart Walker | FierceGovernmentIT | February 25, 2015

The Defense Department's next electronic health record will not be based on the open source architecture that supports the Veterans Affairs Department's EHR. A change to the Defense Healthcare Management System Modernization solicitation narrowed down the field of contractors vying for the $11 billion program – eliminating the only proposed solution built on the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture, or VistA.

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The Guy Who Rescued Obamacare’s Website Has A New Project: The VA

Jennifer Bendery | Huffington Post | May 17, 2016

It was October 2013 when the Obama administration triumphantly flipped the switch on Healthcare.gov, the landing page for the White House’s landmark domestic policy achievement. It promptly crashed. As administration officials absorbed the extent of the catastrophe, they realized they had to go outside the usual government channels to get the site up and running. That’s when they brought in Paul Smith, a politically minded coder with a handful of successful startups behind him...

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Tim Cook visits veterans and doctors at Palo Alto VA hospital, staff using iPads

Mikey Campbell | AppleInsider | August 22, 2014

Apple CEO Tim Cook on Thursday tweeted out a photo and brief message highlighting a recent visit to the Veterans Affairs hospital in Palo Alto, Calif., saying he was happy to meet with doctors who now use iPads to treat patients. Read More »

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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