03 Apr Can Jared Kushner really innovate VA and VistA?
On March 26, President Trump tapped his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to head the newly created White House Office of American Innovation. The agency, which will run as its own department within the West Wing and will report directly to Trump, will collaborate to implement private-sector business models to spur federal innovation, White House officials said.
But topping the organization’s to-do list is reimagining the ailing Veterans Affairs system, which already faces a major tech decision with the overhaul of its VistA electronic health records system. The VA has been attempting — and failing — to fix its EHR for years.
VA has also been plagued with interoperability issues, specifically with the Department of Defense’s EHR. Initial attempts to become interoperable with the DoD fizzled in 2013, and the DoD has since begun installing a Cerner system across its network.
The Government Accountability Office is also fed up with VistA troubles, placing the VA on its High-Risk List in 2017 for the third year in a row.