Christopher A. Miller, Program Executive Officer for the Defense Healthcare Management Systems www.health.mil.dhms appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee http://oversight.house.gov on October 27, 2015 to discuss the state of IT within DOD and how interoperability is moving forward with the VA.
As he explained, “Achieving seamless data integration is dependent on achieving a common set of technical standards across all healthcare venues, not on just sharing the same software system.”
The Defense Medical Information Exchange (DMIX) Program responsible for coordinating DOD’s interoperability efforts with VA and the private sector has developed a schedule that includes mapping DOD data and clinical domains.
Miller further commented, “Plans are to continue deploying and developing the Joint Legacy Viewer (JLV) that provides an integrated display of DOD, VA, and private sector data for clinicians. Clinicians can view a veterans or service member’s complete health history integrated on a single screen.”
DOD has fielded the JLV to more than 70 locations with over 8,480 DOD users. As reported by Laverne Council, Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology and CIO for the Department of Veterans Affairs www.va.gov appearing before the same House Committee, “Currently the JLV is being made available to nearly 19,000 new VA users at 150 VA medical sites and 56 out of the 57 Veteran Benefits Administration Regional sites each month.”
DOD exchanges electronic patient health data with the public and private sector though connections to the national e-Health Exchange. Currently, DOD is deploying private sector interoperability to Military Treatment Facilities (MTF) around the country that have an associated private sector HIE connected to the eHealth Exchange.
DOD is connected to eight HIEs and is one of 107 participants in the eHealth Exchange. DOD plans to connect to an additional seven HIE partners by the end of the calendar year, based on functional and business factors. In 2016, DOD plans to onboard additional HIE partners.