Veterans Affairs
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Blue Button: Driving a Patient-Centered Revolution in Health Care
A lot can happen in a year. Last October, I wrote about a promising new offering for people looking to take control of their own health and health care decisions. Known as "blue button," this simple (but rather revolutionary) technology offers individuals the ability to download their own health information with just the click of a mouse. Read More »
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Boston-Based Software Company's Telehealth Technology Will Help Make Care More Available to Veterans
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently announced that the Boston-based telehealth software company, American Well, has won a VA Innovation Initiative (VAi2) Industry Innovation Competition award. VAi2 is responsible for selecting, funding, and evaluating new ideas from VA employees, academia and the private sector. Read More »
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Conversation with Ralph Johnson, Ward Cunningham, and Tom Munnecke About Refectoring VistA
Ward Cunningham, best known as the inventor of the wiki, invited me to his home for dinner last Friday night. Ralph Johnson, a world-class leader in object oriented programming technology, pattern languages, and refactoring, happened to be his house guest. Read More »
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Craigslist's Craig Praises VA Innovation
Craig Newmark, founder of Craiglist, had high praise for the Veterans Affairs Department in a post on the official VA blog, VAntage Point today. Read More »
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Creating a New IT Culture in Health Care
The pressures on our health system are real and continue to build, threatening the sustainability of our health-care system. For example, rates of chronic disease continue to increase, and access and quality challenges continue to be a reality in many parts of the country. Read More »
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Defense Companies Target Health Care
Traditional defense contractors are increasingly muscling into the health care services field, hoping that the burgeoning area can help them weather reductions in Pentagon equipment buying. Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin and Falls Church-based General Dynamics, both of which already had health care practices in place, have ramped up their businesses in recent weeks with new acquisitions. Read More »
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DoD, VA Health IT Records Require Speaking in 'Same Language'
The Defense and Veterans Affairs Departments have been pursuing creation of a single, compatible health IT record. It would start when service members enlist and would stay with them after they muster out of DoD and become clients of Veterans Affairs health care. Read More »
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DoD, VA Will Use Service-Oriented Architecture in Joint EHR
The ever-evolving, contentious effort to merge the electronic health records of the Department of Defense and the Veterans Affairs Department just took another step forward. Mark Goodge, chief technology officer of the Military Health System, announced that the integrated electronic health record (iEHR) will use common services applications rather than a single proprietary system, accordin Read More »
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From the VAC: What Is Telehealth, and What Does It Mean to Vets?
I recently attended a brief by US Department of Veterans Affairs medical staff folks regarding a relatively new service called "Telehealth." What is telehealth, and what does it mean to us as Veterans? Well, it appears to be the newest effort to provide health care services to veterans in rural areas. That's us. Read More »
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General Dynamics Closes $960M Vangent Acquisition
General Dynamics Corp. has closed its $960 million acquisition of Vangent Inc. in a move that builds out GD’s health care IT business. The company becomes part of General Dynamics IT and creates a health care business that stretches across both civilian and defense agencies. Read More »
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Harris Team Will Recode VA Health Care System to Meet HIPAA Deadline
Harris Corp. has won a five-year, $5.3 million contract from the Veterans Affairs Department to provide disease classification coding remediation. The award calls for Harris to assist the VA’s Health Administration Center Cache System comply with the new International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems medical coding standards, according to an Oct. Read More »
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HHS Consumer Health IT Summit Power-Charged for Progress
President Barack Obama proclaimed on Monday, in conjunction with the summit, that Sept. 11-16 would officially be federally recognized as National Health IT week going forward. Farzad Mostashari, MD, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, who moderated the summit, emphasized the new exciting times healthcare IT now faces. Read More »
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IOM Report Defense/VA Have No Clue if $9.3 Billion Worth Of PTSD Treatment Works
The Defense and Veterans Affairs departments spent $9.3 billion to treat post-traumatic stress disorder from 2010 through 2012, but neither knows whether this staggering sum resulted in effective or adequate care, the Institute of Medicine reported today....
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Listening to Users: How VA Developed Its PTSD Coach Mobile App
When Dr. Julia Hoffman wanted to build a mobile app to help veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, she went to the source: 80 residential PTSD patients at the Veterans Affairs Department Trauma Recovery Program in Palo Alto, Calif. Read More »
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More Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans Wind Up Homeless
The new study notes that the overall population of homeless veterans has remained largely stable in recent years, with an estimated 145,000 spending at least one night in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program over a 12-month period ending in 2010. That is roughly 12% of all homeless adults, the study says. Read More »
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