The chief information officer of the Department of Veterans Affairs wants to make it easier for veterans and their doctors to use iPads, particularly for healthcare applications.
“I’ve told my folks I don’t want to say ‘no’ to those devices anymore,” CIO Roger Baker said at a TechAmerica conference this week. “I want to know how I say ‘yes’.”
Currently, the tablet devices are banned from official departmental business involving veterans’ personal information because the encryption is not stringent enough, Nextgov reports.
But Baker said the iPad ban no longer makes sense, especially for the thousands of doctors who do their residencies at VA, who are “carrying a mobile device and they know where all those great Internet websites are that would help them do their jobs better if only that dumb CIO back in Washington wouldn’t insist on crazy rules like veterans’ information must be encrypted.”
To prepare for what Baker sees as the inevitable day when iPads are cleared for use, the department has begun a pilot project for duties that don’t involve veterans’ personal information.
