Outgoing Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) CIO Roger W. Baker provided testimony last week on the VA and Department of Defense (DoD) joint EHR venture. In doing so, he highlighted how the organizations plan on maximizing data security with the new technologies.
The DoD and VA had previously said that they wanted to focus on security with the new joint EHR, but Baker’s Feb. 27 testimony provided more concrete details on how the organizations plan on achieving that goal. One piece of the plan, according to govinfosecurity.com, is the VA bringing in the DoD Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC)’s common identification system as well as an ID system that caters to both DoD and VA employees. Additionally, the DoD and VA will jointly form a single network that allows both organization’s users to login instead of having connecting, fragmented networks that may put data at risk.
Perhaps most noteworthy, though, is the work being done with patient identity matching, which continues to weigh on the minds of healthcare information security and management executives. Baker said that the DoD and VA have progressed in efforts to give users proper access to integrated patient records while maintain data accuracy. A roadblock in this process had previously been Congress being against single-ID patient identifiers but it appears that the organizations have found a solution in removing Social Security numbers from the patient data.
Though this technology still isn’t close to release, it helps to hear what exactly the DoD and VA are building security-wise in the new joint EHR system. It looks as though further details will depend on whether the EHR software will become commercialized. Another consideration is the fact that Baker’s recent resignation leaves a leadership void in a project where security will remain a significant concentration.