In the United States, the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have announced the launch of a shared electronic health record system at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center (Lovell FHCC) in North Chicago, “completing the military’s adoption of the system and moving the VA a step closer to restarting its rollout across its 172 medical centers and clinics”.
The launch marks the first movement on the program from the VA since the system’s deployment was paused back in April of 2023 to address concerns about technical issues and patient safety. It is also cited as “the first joint deployment of the federal EHR, which DOD calls MHS GENESIS, at a joint VA and Department of Defense facility”.
Lester Martinez-Lopez, assistant secretary of defence for health affairs, said: “The launch of the Federal EHR at Lovell FHCC will help DOD and VA deliver on the promise made to those who serve our country to provide seamless care from their first day of active service to the transition to veteran status. A joint electronic health record system demonstrates the power of technology to improve health care delivery, and we look forward to continued collaboration with our VA partners.”
The new EHR will mean that patients and clinicians are able to utilise a single EHR system, which is hoped to “meaningfully improve patient health outcomes and benefits decisions”.
The roll-out at Lovell FHCC will help to inform decisions around the progression of the VA’s program to reset the electronic health record project, with plans to explore issues experienced by clinicians and end-users to develop “success criteria to determine when to exit the program reset and restart deployments at other facilities”.
To learn more about the shared electronic health record system, please click here.
In other health tech news from the US, Jefferson Radiology in Connecticut has announced the introduction of Aidoc tech across its outpatient centers and hospital partnerships, with the aim of enhancing sub-specialized care and improving healthcare outcomes.
