Cerner has put together a team from 24 business to help with the $16 billion VA electronic health record project.
The companies include Leidos, the contractor for the Defense Department's Cerner EHR, as well as Accenture, AbleVets and MicroHealth.
"The team will create a single longitudinal health record that can facilitate the efficient exchange of data among military care facilities, VA facilities and the thousands of civilian healthcare providers where current and former service members receive care," VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said in a news release.
The companies will lend their "experience and expertise" to Cerner's efforts to bring "seamless care" to veterans, according to a Cerner Facebook post.
Cerner did not say specifically how the team will work with other groups working on the EHR. Those include the Office of Electronic Health Record Modernization, which the VA established this summer to guide preparation, deployment and maintenance of the new EHR. Overseen by John Windom, the office is collaborating with the Defense Department to make sure the new EHR is "fully interoperable," Wilkie told the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee last week.
Interoperability has been a sticking point for the project since nearly the beginning, and it was one of the reasons the VA-Cerner contract was delayed for so long.
As negative press swirled around the negotiations, Cerner President Zane Burke attributed some of it to "fake news." Last month, Burke announced he would be leaving the company on Nov. 2. Cerner's executive vice president of worldwide client relationships will take over his duties and become chief client officer.