The Department of Veterans Affairs has attested to meeting interoperability standards with the Department of Defense, a requirement mandated to the two agencies in December 2013, reports Federal News Radio.
The interoperability requirement was included in the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2014. DOD reported reaching the interoperability milestone in November, and now the VA said April 8 it has also reached the interoperability standard.
The agencies' clinicians are using an application called Joint Legacy Viewer to facilitate accessing data in each other's clinical systems. The DOD currently uses the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application for its EHR system, and the VA uses the VistA system that was developed in-house.
The JLV is a "temporary workaround," according to the report, as it is an external application that permits clinicians to view patient data but is separate from the EHRs. However, the VA is to implement a new product, Enterprise Health Management Platform, across medical centers in 2017 that will integrate seamless data sharing in the VistA EHR, according to the report.
More articles on interoperability:
3 thoughts on interoperability from Cerner's Zane Burke & Ascension's Dr. Mike Schatzlein
Black Book names Cerner top open system HIE vendor
Medsphere signs ONC's Interoperability Pledge