The EHR system of the Department of Veteran Affairs has been implemented by the same vendor used by the Department of Defense. This move will certainly improve the data security; however, it may face different challenges in the future.
Challenges and advantages involved VA’s new EHR system?
Implementing the EHR system from the same vendor will streamline the secure sharing of records between the VA and DoD. However, the process of moving legacy VA data to a new platform poses potential breach risks.
Curt Kwak, CIO of Proliance Surgeons mentions,
“A big part of this is obviously safeguarding the privacy of our veterans. Data security will need to be one of the highest – if not the highest – priority in the program.”
The Proliance Surgeons is a large surgery practice in Washington state, and former CIO of that state’s health insurance exchange under the Affordable Care Act.
VA Secretary David Shulkin, M.D. announced Monday that the VA will adopt a records system based on Cerner Corp.’s Millennium EHR system, phasing out its old, home-grown VistA system. But because the VA has “unique needs, many of which are different from the DoD,” it won’t be adopting the identical EHR in use at DoD, Shulkin says.
Nevertheless, by using a core platform from the same vendor as the DoD, the VA will improve interoperability between the EHRs used for both active military and veterans – as well as their beneficiaries – and eliminate the need “for manual or electronic exchange of information,” he says.
Some security and privacy experts agree with Shulkin’s assessment. David Kibbe, M.D., president and CEO of DirectTrust, which developed Direct, a secure healthcare email protocol says,
“Using a single EHR vendor for both the VA and DoD’s medical facilities will make it easier for care providers at both federal agencies to view, access and make entries into a single longitudinal medical record for each individual patient. This will eliminate the need, under most circumstances, for transport of records between medical facilities at the two agencies.”
Manual health record exchange as well as clumsy electronic attempts to share data can result in breaches.
Date: June 8, 2017