Pentagon Resists Administration’s Mandate for an Open Source Health Records System

President Obama has backed open standards for an integrated electronic health record system to serve the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments since his first term, but Pentagon plans to acquire commercial software to replace the department’s current EHR are “manifestly inconsistent” with that approach, J. Michael Gilmore, the Pentagon’s director of operational test and evaluation wrote in a blistering memo. Gilmore noted that Defense has resisted open standards and software for years.

Gilmore, in a March 28 memo to Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter obtained by Nextgov, said, “The White House has repeatedly recommended that the Department take an inexpensive and direct approach to implementing the President’s open standards.” The White House, Defense and VA reached an agreement for an integrated electronic health record based on open standards last Dec. 6, Nextgov reported today .

“Unfortunately, [the Pentagon] preference is to purchase proprietary software for so-called ‘core’ health management functions. This will be an expensive, complete replacement that may or may not succeed and that may or may not result in a system that adheres to open standards,” Gilmore told Carter...