Stinging from criticism that they have wasted millions of dollars by failing to develop an interoperable electronic health records system, Defense and Veterans Affairs department officials are touting the capabilities of the new Joint Legacy Viewer, a Web-based software program that allows medical personnel in both agencies to see and work with each others' records.
The JLV gives military and VA health providers read-only access to health records from multiple sources, including those maintained for Tricare beneficiaries, DoD and VA.
But the system also has a number of features that lets users drill down into the data, searching for and sorting information to get a better picture of a patient's medical history — radiology test results, prescriptions, doctors' notes and much more.
DoD and VA began an effort to create health records that could work together as early as 1998, with an initiative to craft a joint system — an integrated electronic health record system — starting in earnest in 2009.
But after spending at least $564 million on that effort, leaders of the two departments ditched those in 2013, citing different system needs and a projected total price tag of $28 billion.
Both Congress and the Government Accountability Office have expressed frustration at the pace and cost of developing a complete system — one that is supposed to be available at all VA medical centers and DoD health facilities and also accessible by private health systems.
The JLV is not that, but it does meet the requirements set by Congress for DoD to certify that its medical records are interoperable with VA and some private-sector medical providers.
Chris Miller, DoD's program executive officer for health management systems, said the Pentagon and VA have always shared data, and in fact "share more data than any two health systems in the country."
The JLV, he added, makes the data accessible across the world, by any military or VA provider.
"At the end of the day, what we are really after is: Can VA and DoD doctors see the same information? Can they make the better decision? Can our service members, as they transition, make sure all the information is there on the VA side when they leave service?" Miller said during a JLV demonstration with reporters.
The VA is in the midst of overhauling its legacy medical records system. On Nov. 18, VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson invited members of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee to a demonstration of the JLV.
"Please give us the opportunity to demonstrate the information exchange that's happening between DoD and VA ... it's vast amounts of information, and we'd love to share that with you," Gibson said.
Defense officials could not provide details on the cost of development or implementation of JLV, which they said is based on software architecture developed by Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii and the VA Pacific Island Health Care Systems in 2003.
The JLV is scheduled to get a number of upgrades over the next year that will improve its interface and security and ensure that it uses the newest medical coding system.
David Waltman, VA's chief information strategy officer, said the JLV allows a user to draw from 300 data sources and will serve as the platform for the future.
"The interoperability is about us being able to combine that information from all of those services and have the system understand it meaningfully, regardless of where the information came from," Waltman said.
Patricia Kime is a senior writer covering military and veterans health care, medicine and personnel issues.
