That's the title of the hearing that the House Armed Service Committee's subcommittee on Joint Military Personnel and Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities plans to hold on March 24. It will be on the Defense Department's AHLTA (remember, not an acronym) electronic health record system.
The subtitle of the hearing is, "Where Do We Go From Here?" Hopefully, that question will be answered by a panel of witnesses that include Dr. S. Ward Casscells, assistant secretary of Defense for Health Affairs; the Army, Navy and Air Force surgeon generals; and Charles Campbell, chief information officer of the Military Health System.
I can hardly wait.
COMMENTS
Having been involved with the first attempt to establish a govt wide electronic patient record (GCPR), and watched a repeat of common failure patterns, I believe the appropriate comment would be "insanity is continuing the same process over and over again and expecting different results".
As the DoD 5000, DODAF, NESI, and JCDIS were designed to support 20 year Weapon Systems lifecycles, they have become too onerous for the fast paced IT market. The AF first recognized this and established a fast pathed approach called ASAP to enable a rapid acquisition process.
What is most impressive about the DoD/VA leadership is that they are unafraid to admit flaws in the system, and have demonstrated their willingness to adopt commercial architecture and acquisition models that has hope in delivering an interoperable healthcare system.
General Cartwright has also weighed in on this hot topic saying " it takes longer to charter a new (IT program) start than the life cycle of a the software package". Dr. Jack Gansler has made similar comments. So the real question is, will OSD continue to use the same kind of thinking that created these problems in the first place. Frankly, the chances are very slim, as all past attempts to reform have been driven by those who do not want the process to change.
Given DoD HA/VA stated direction to move towards SOA, a commercial innovation, maybe this could force some new thinking and innovation into existing Govt architecture and acquisition cultures that have resisted change. There is a plethora of leading SOA practices and lessons learned to leverage, but often outside the reach of the defense industrial base.
Obama believes these kinds of challenges are best addressed by public service non-profits who are natural collaborators. He and his new administration are putting much stock in non-profits who can help mitigate conflicts of interest in the pre-acquisition process.
Another potential catalyst will be the Business Transformation Agency headed up by David Fisher. They are the charter to develop a streamlined swim lane for Business IT Acquisitions. Both the Business Capability Lifecycle (BCL) and Capability Assessment Method (CAM) off much promise for those PMs looking for a better way to buy IT and cope with the fast paced IT market.
John Weiler 03/25/09 12:47 pm ET