Dive Brief:
- The Department of Defense is working to standardize its IT infrastructure before modernizing its EHR.
- The $11-billion transition to a new EHR system—the contract for which is still yet to be awarded—will support 9.7 million beneficiaries at 2,300 worldwide locations. The contract is expected to be awarded this summer.
- A team of Defense Health Agency employees has been developing infrastructure plans ensuring that network bandwidth requirements support wire and wireless networks for military healthcare operations. Other goals include a secure, centralized IT infrastructure with authentication across application, desktop, and server environments.
Dive Insight:
"So far DHA has made progress on the infrastructure preparedness—particularly in the Pacific Northwest Region where we will achieve initial operating capability with the modernized EHR before rolling it out more widely—and efforts are on schedule," said David Bowen, CIO for the Military Health System.
The agency is also working to move email to the cloud-based Defense Information System Agency's Defence Enterprise Email. Education and training systems are being consolidated into a "one-stop" learning management system with 23 portals called Joint Knowledge Online, according to Bowen. "Our primary goal is to support our medical teams and administrators across the Military Health system with reliable tools to support safety, high-quality care and access to care when they need it."