This week, the House Veterans Affairs Committee will have its hands full with hearings on two major IT projects at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that have both recently been subject to scrutiny in the press and in Congress. […]

While the Department of Veterans Affairs is approaching IT modernization with a strong desire to improve systems, especially when it comes to electronic health records (EHR), the agency is taking care not to shut down existing systems too early, said deputy CIO and chief information security officer Dominic Cussatt during an episode of Government Matters that aired on Sunday. […]

Cerner, the contractor providing electronic health records systems to both the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs, offered an update on Tuesday on those projects and cited some early successes from test implementations. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense announced a joint agreement between Defense Secretary James Mattis and VA Secretary Robert Wilkie to work together on the new electronic health records (EHR) systems in both departments. […]

Cerner announced a number of partnerships to support the company in its $10 billion contract with the Department of Veterans Affairs to modernize the VA’s electronic health records system. […]

Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie on Wednesday offered his 60-day report on the VA’s electronic health record (EHR) modernization effort, among other agency priorities, and emphasized the benefits that a successful modernization push will yield. […]

The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee voted today to approve the nomination of James Gfrerer to serve as the Department of Veterans Affairs’ chief information officer and the assistant secretary of the agency’s Office of Information and Technology. Gfrerer’s nomination will now move to the full Senate for a final confirmation vote. […]

A new bill in front of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Health Subcommittee would put pressure on the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to make its websites and digital tools more accessible to the visually impaired. […]

Genevieve Morris on Aug. 24 resigned as chief health information officer (CHIO) of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Electronic Health Record Modernization (OEHRM). […]

Legislators and witnesses emphasized today at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions the importance of improving interoperability of Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems and said interoperability improvements will not only save administrative time and money but also will improve the quality of care patients receive. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) on Tuesday released a justification and approval (J&A) document that says DoD is expanding the scope of the contract for its Electronic Health Record (EHR) system known as MHS Genesis. The document says that the contract must be expanded to achieve “a single standard baseline solution” with the new Department of Veterans Affairs EHR and also to incorporate the U.S. Coast Guard into the DoD EHR. […]

The Senate voted on Monday to confirm Robert Wilkie as Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary by a vote of 86-9, solidifying top leadership at VA in the midst of ongoing change and uncertainty at the second-largest Federal agency. […]

It’s the Monday after a 6-goal barnburner in the World Cup final, a torrential downpour trophy ceremony, and we’ve now entered the era of existential dread for the world’s soccer fans. Reality sets in. It’s four years until the world’s biggest sporting event comes back around. […]

The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee today officially approved the creation of a new Technology Modernization Subcommittee to oversee the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Electronic Health Record (EHR) modernization and other major IT projects. […]

Robert Wilkie, President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA), affirmed that IT modernization and the Electronic Health Records (EHR) Program are among his top priorities during today’s Senate Veterans Affairs Committee nomination hearing. […]

While the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is ready to move forward on a new electronic health records (EHR) system, members of Congress are asking for transparency and angling for oversight of an agency that has had its fair share of problems providing services […]

With the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) formally signing on last month to adopt the same electronic health records system as the Department of Defense (DoD), the two agencies are putting a lot of chips on a solution to a problem that history suggests is pretty risky. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has signed a 10-year, $10 billion Electronic Health Record (EHR) contract with Cerner to modernize the agency’s healthcare IT systems, VA Acting Secretary Robert Wilkie announced late Thursday. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is focused on modernizing its aging technology infrastructure. From overhauling its electronic health records system to moving to the cloud, the VA has been busy. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will be under new management. The ouster of former secretary David Shulkin was a slow burn, not unlike the process to approve an Electronic Health Records (EHR) system that will satisfy the government’s cybersecurity and interoperability demands. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) and contractor Cerner are coming off an eight week break in the initial deployment of what’s planned to be a worldwide health care records system. The team stopped work to address glitches in system performance and contend with negative user feedback. But officials in charge of the deployment of the MHS Genesis system said the pause was planned as part of the rollout, initial complaints were expected, and DoD still expects to complete the $4.3 billion system by 2022. […]

President Donald Trump last week issued an Executive Order on veterans’ health care that included an announcement that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) would adopt the same electronic records systems as the Department of Defense (DoD), signing off on what was already a done deal. Emphasis on “deal,” because although the departments are on board with a project that could cost $10 billion over 10 years, history raises doubts as to whether a unified health records system can actually be achieved. […]

The on-again, off-again story of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ $642 million commercial scheduling system is not only back on track, but is likely part of a larger movement by the department to finally adopt a commercial electronic health record system. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs this week launched a new website to raise awareness of the agency’s Digital Health Platform–a cloud-based approach to integrating veterans health data to produce what the agency calls real-time, analytics-driven, personalized care. […]

The Medical Group Management Association 2016 Cost and Revenue Report, released in August 2016, found that IT costs have increased by more than 40 percent per physician since 2009. […]

In the increased adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHR), usability is a key concern, according to a recent survey by the Scottsdale Institute. […]

More than 80 percent of non-Federal, acute care hospitals as of 2015 reported electronically exchanging lab results, radiology reports, clinical care summaries, or medication lists with ambulatory care providers and hospitals outside of their organization in a new study released by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. […]

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights released an infographic, “Your Health Information, Your Rights,” to provide health consumers with facts on an individual’s right to access their medical records, examples of how to obtain medical records, and tips for protecting health information. […]