Scott Blackburn, former acting chief information officer at the Department of Veterans Affairs, has said he is optimistic that DHS would advance the plan to award a contract to implement a new electronic health record system amid a series of leadership changes, Federal Times reported Monday.
“Things are still moving forward to the best of my knowledge, and I’m looking forward to seeing that contract signed in the next couple of months,†Blackburn said Monday at the Government Information Technology Executive Council summit.
Blackburn announced his resignation April 17 on Twitter weeks after President Donald Trump revealed his intention to nominate Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, White House physician, as replacement to David Shulkin for the VA secretary role.
Shulkin said in March that VA has started integrating the 51 recommendations from the Mitre-led EHR interoperability review into a contract the department intends to award to Cerner.
The report noted that VA plans to align its EHR platform with that of the Defense Department.
