The Defense Department has released an outline of how the proposed joint electronic health-record system for use by the Military Health System and the Veterans Affairs Department's healthcare organization is to be developed.
The 55 page report (PDF), "Department of Defense Enterprise Architecture to Guide the Transition of the DoD Electronic Health Record, and Related Matters," was submitted to Congress by Dr. Jonathan Woodson, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.
The "envisioned target state" of the joint EHR is "a coordinated, 'best-of-breed' approach that includes a mix of existing SOA (service-oriented architecture)-compliant capabilities, commercial-off-the-shelf, open-source and custom systems." The Defense Department's Manpower Data Center will be the "single identity management source," the report said, while the department's Defense Information Systems Agency will run the EHR's data centers. The EHR will have a common user interface.