Report: DoD Must Choose Open-Source EHR

To fix its health care system the military needs to acquire an open-source electronic health records system, adopt value-based care and give vets and active duty soldiers access to their medical records, according to a report issued Thursday by the Center for a New American Security. The high share of the Pentagon budget — about 10 percent — that goes to healthcare will damage national security unless it can be reduced, concludes the report by Gen. Hugh Shelton, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Stephen Ondra, formerly of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Peter Levin, the Dept. of Veterans Affairs’ former chief information officer.

In their report, the authors seek to influence DoD’s decision on its $11 billion electronic health records acquisition, which the GAO on Wednesday put on its “High Risk” list, expressing skepticism of its success after 15 years of failed EHR sharing between the DoD and VA. Levin, Ondra and Shelton urge the department to choose a health records system that is “extensible, flexible and easy to safely modify and upgrade as technology improves and interoperability demands evolve.” A “closed and proprietary” commercial EHR — such as one offered by Epic, Cerner or Allscripts — will lead to “vendor” lock and isolation of health data, they write...