CTO Peter Levin on the Blue Button and the open source VistA initiatives

As chief technology officer at the Veterans Affairs Department, Peter Levin leads efforts to modernize health records for veterans, create a joint record system with the Defense Department and tackle a backlog of claims related to Agent Orange exposure among Vietnam era veterans. He has made great strides in all those areas, but one initiative in particular has caught on beyond VA’s wildest expectations. Levin was chief architect and co-inventor of Blue Button, an online service that allows veterans to access and download the information from their My HealtheVet personal health records into a text file or PDF, which they can then share with health care providers, other caregivers or loved ones.