The Obama Administration announced last week that it will be rolling out an EMR for veterans that will contain all of their clinical and administrative information from the moment of enlistment to their death. In making this promise, the administration is taking on an issue--interconnection between different types of data and different providers--that has dragged on for several years without any apparent resolution as of yet.
Part of accomplishing this feat will call for linking up the Department of Defense's hospitals with the VA's EMR system, which don't currently share all of the information they contain. However, connecting the two systems should be an extremely complex task, as the DoD uses different technology than the VA.
The VA's highly-regarded medical record technology, VistA, is almost completely paperless and connects to every hospital in the system. However, the DoD's system still relies on paper as well as EMRs. The two agencies have been working for years to bring their respective systems together, but deadlines have come
To learn more about Obama's plans:
- read this piece [1] from The Washington Post
Related Articles:
DoD makes progress in VA EMR integration [2]
DoD, VA still struggling to share EMR data [3]
Links:
[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/09/AR2009040904385.html
[2] http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/dod-makes-progress-va-emr-integration/2008-01-07
[3] http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/dod-va-still-struggling-share-emr-data/2007-10-29