New joint health information exchanges between the departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs will soon go live nationwide, Federal Times reports.
According to Nicole Blake Johnson’s report, this step is part of the Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record program which aims to give active service members and veterans online access to health and other personal data.
VA Chief Information Officer Roger Baker said the exchange is triggered by a patient visiting either a VA facility or a private sector facility that is part of the exchange, Johnson reports.
Veterans must consent to having their health information shared between providers.
Citing a status report, Johnson reports 38,000 veterans agreed to participate in pilot programs on information sharing with a goal of between 50,000 and 100,000 signing up for the health exchanges.
VA facilities in both San Antonio and the Hampton Roads, Va. region could have a joint DoD-VA EHR system onsite by 2014, with Baker saying at the time both regions have large numbers of active service military members and veterans.
