US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

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BT to Offer Medsphere’s OpenVista Electronic Health Record

Press Release | Medsphere, BT | January 13, 2015

Open source health IT leader and established international IT services provider to promote SaaS open-platform solution Read More »

Car Crashes, Auto Bumpers, and HealthIT Interoperability

At this year’s HIMSS conference, interoperability was again one of the hottest topics of discussion. Interoperability was even a featured showcase at the HIMSS Interoperability Showcase. Yet the lack of interoperability in HealthIT remains. "HealthIT is not unique in its interoperability woes and other industries, including the automotive industry, are still struggling with associated safety issues."

Case Study Demonstrates Efficacy of OpenVista for Behavioral Health

Press Release | Medsphere | April 14, 2016

Medsphere Systems Corporation...today announced the release of a case study focused on three inpatient behavioral health facilities that have implemented Medsphere’s OpenVista electronic health record (EHR). The integration of OpenVista into workflows and processes at Silver Hill Hospital, IntraCare North and The Recovery Center at EvergreenHealth Monroe has yielded clear benefits at each facility in terms of both patient care and the day-to-day experience of clinicians and staff. The clinicians at all three hospitals now have rapid access to more accurate and comprehensive patient records...

CAV Systems Announces Relational Database Replicator for FileMan MUMPS Databases

Press Release | CAV Systems | November 6, 2014

CAV Systems Ltd, a leading Israeli software company, recently completed development of FileMan Replicator, a software solution that creates and continuously updates a relational database replica of MUMPS databases, either Caché or GT.M,  that are managed by the FileMan Database Management System. Read More »

CBORD and DSS Collaborate to Enhance the Patient Meal Experience for Veterans

Press Release | DSS, Inc., CBORD | January 12, 2015

CBORD®, the leading provider of clinical nutrition and foodservice software, and Document Storage Systems, Inc. (DSS), the leading provider of software development and support for VistA and vxVistA, announced today a partnership to develop a CBORD VistA interface is underway. This new interface will allow the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMC) to connect CBORD's state-of-the art Patient Foodservice Technology directly with VistA, the VA's electronic health record (EHR).

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Cerner, Leidos, Accenture Plan Joint Bid for Defense EHR Contract

Joseph Conn | Modern Healthcare | June 26, 2014

Cerner Corp. has entered an alliance with experienced government contractors Leidos and Accenture Federal Services to make a play for the multibillion-dollar contract to build, install and configure a replacement electronic health-record system for the Defense Department's health system. Read More »

Cernering the Market

Mike Farahbakshian | Fed Health IT | July 10, 2017

After years of speculation and rumors, in a move that surprised absolutely no one, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin announced that the Department of Veterans Affairs is moving to Cerner Millenium to replace its home-grown VistA electronic health record. On the surface this makes sense, because of DoD’s move to Cerner in 2015 and an overarching VA desire to move from custom software to COTS software. However, SecVA’s decision is only the beginning of an extremely long path, as DHA is finding with its MHS GENESIS project. Moreover, VA has a broader scope than DHA. Unlike DHA, whose primary goal is to provide a medically ready fighting force, VA handles a slew of additional tasks, including...

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Chuck Hagel and the Secret War Over DOD & VA Electronic Health Records

Dan Vernon | FedScoop | August 12, 2014

...Today, the agencies are moving down separate modernization paths, with DOD working on its Defense Healthcare Management System Modernization program (DHMSM) and VA planning commercial acquisitions for the next generation of its Veterans Integrated System Technology Architecture, known as VistA. But analysts, including one of the founding developers of VistA, point to years of missed opportunities for DOD to leverage what many consider to be superior existing capabilities in VA’s VistA system — an ecosystem of modular application components that in most cases have become industry standards (VA’s troubled scheduling system notwithstanding)...

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Cognosante Acquires Business Information Technology Solutions to Expand Military and Veterans Health IT Business

Press Release | Cognosante, BITS | October 27, 2016

Cognosante and Business Information Technology Solutions (BITS) announced today that Cognosante has acquired BITS, a rapidly growing provider of IT services and solutions to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). BITS, also known as The BITS Group, has more than a decade of experience in healthcare systems, enterprise business systems, business intelligence, and data analytics in the public health sector. It is one of the prime contractors of the VA’s $22.3 billion Transformation Twenty-One Total Technology Next Generation (T4NG).

College Students Tackle PTSD at First DC Hackathon

More than 50 college students from across the world gathered this previous weekend at HackDC 2015, the first Hackathon dedicated to crowdsourcing innovative ways to address the serious problem of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) by creating mobile applications and solutions. The event, which started on Friday, went through Sunday afternoon. Held at the Richard J. Ernst Community Cultural Center in the Annandale Campus of the Northern Virginia Community Colleges (NVCC), HackDC 2015 provided the participants with access to food, sleeping facilities, and showers so that they could work straight through the weekend. 

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Coming Soon: Pentagon’s Multi-Billion Dollar Health Records Contract

Frank Konkei | Nextgov | April 25, 2014

Sometime in the coming months, the Defense Department will bid out its Healthcare Management Systems Modernization contract, an effort so large in monetary size and game-changing scope that it could significantly influence the future of health care in the United States.

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Congress unhappy with DoD, VA health records progress

Leo Shane III | Marine Times | April 16, 2014

House lawmakers plan to hold back millions in dollars of technology funding from Defense and Veterans Affairs department planners until Congress is convinced they are making progress on developing a way to share electronic medical records. Read More »

Congressman Roe Reintroduces Bill To Create Joint Military EHR System

On Tuesday, Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.) reintroduced legislation that calls for the development of an integrated electronic health record system for members of the military and veterans, Politico's "Morning eHealth" reports (Allen et al., "Morning eHealth," Politico, 3/25)...According to WBIR, the bill would establish a temporary panel to create criteria for the EHR system, which would then be created by a U.S.-based vendor. The vendor would receive a lump sum of $50 million to develop the system, as well as $25 million annually over five years to operate the system. Roe said a joint military and veterans EHR system would help to streamline the transfer of medical records between DOD and VA. In addition, Roe said the system could help ease coordination of benefits claims and care.

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Creating EHRs that Doctors Don't Hate

It may be difficult to recall now, what with the ongoing Cerner deployment and recent challenges that had little to do with technology, but there was a time when the Department of Veterans Affairs was considered the gold standard for healthcare IT. VA was out front with the initial development in the 1970s of the VistA system, which would come to be widely recognized and frequently honored. Indeed, when VA was overhauled in the 1990s, VistA was the primary tool that enabled the success of new policies. Without question, much of the effectiveness and durability of VA's VistA can be attributed to the way it was developed, specifically to the collaboration between technologists and clinicians that defined the process.

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Daring to Defend the Federal Bureaucracy

Charles S. Clark | Government Executive | August 2, 2017

In an age where “unelected bureaucrats” is a common Washington epithet, give credit to a law professor, former college president and experienced federal manager for cutting against the grain. “The need for a robust civil service has never been greater,” writes Paul R. Verkuil in Valuing Bureaucracy: The Case for Professional Government. “To be effective, government must be run by professional managers,” says the former president of William and Mary College who served five years in the Obama administration as chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States...

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