DoD And Tech Firms Face Daunting Health-IT Challenge

"The DoD's electronic health record program is a large and extremely complex undertaking. There are a number of different vendors, players, technologies, organizations and politics involved, resulting in tremendous barriers to overcome," said eHealth Initiative CEO Jennifer Covich Bordenick. "That doesn't mean it is impossible to execute DHMSM successfully -- but it will be a difficult feat."

The U.S. government is about to embark on a major information technology program dealing with personal health records. The program is being launched by the U.S. Department of Defense, which issued a request for proposals to health IT providers late last month.  The initiative, known as the "Defense Health Care Management Systems Modernization program," or DHMSM, is expected to support medical readiness for DoD's military personnel and support the department's current population of more than 9.6 million beneficiaries and more than 153,000 Military Health System personnel.

Through the department's electronic health record modernization initiative, the DoD Healthcare Management System (DHMS) program executive office also will continue to improve health data-sharing capabilities with the Department of Veterans Affairs and private sector healthcare providers. That will allow clinician and beneficiary access to information whenever and wherever it's needed.  Civilian healthcare organizations provide nearly 60 percent of healthcare for service members and their families, according to DoD...