DoD and Veteran Affairs to Combine EHR's

It looks as though President Obama is really moving along with his health plan by cleaning up goverment right off the get-go. The Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs both have active EHR programs but as of now have been unable to share information back and forth.

With an announcement earlier this week, plans are being forged which will begin the process of creating a link between the two systems. This will be a model for healthcare facilties throughout the country if all goes as planned.

Hopefully they share their problems and solutions so other implementors can learn from the experience.

Below is a post from the EHRScope Blog

White House Announces Plan to Integrate DOD and VA EHRs

The Obama administration announced this week that the Departments of Defense(DOD) and Veterans Affairs(VA) will finally create a path to integrate the flow of patients’ information between DOD’s AHLTA and the VA’s VistA EHR platforms. Each of the disparate systems in and of themselves represents a successful implementation of EHRs, however until now there has been little or no ability to transfer patient data between the two systems.

Read the complete post HERE

President Obama to Sign ARRA’s HITECH provisions

From HIPAA.com
Ed Jones, Author & Healthcare Authority

The Senate joined the House on Friday evening, February 13, 2009, in passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which includes provisions relating to Health Information Technology. Title XIII of Division A and Title IV of Division B together are known as the “Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act” or the “HITECH Act.” We will be highlighting attributes of the HITECH Act through the end of February. READ MORE>>

Commander in Chief and his Blackberry...The saga continues

Like a growing number of people across the globe, President Obama is an avid user of his smart phone. He currently uses a Blackberry 8830 but as noted on the GeekDoctor blog, his days with the device may be numbered as security concerns are starting a debate. ZDNet also did a piece on this issue talking about the new phone which could offer the Commander In Chief the required security for his communications.