During a media roundtable, VA Under Secretary for Health Dr. Shereef Elnahal told FedScoop that if the medical research issues with the EHR are not fixed, similar concerns could arise at other other VA hospitals.

“So there are many VA medical centers that are heavy with clinical research because of their academic affiliations,” Dr. Elnahal said. “And so those centers will need this research functionality. It’s not just an issue with the Ann Arbor Hospital.” Dr. Shereef Elnahal, VA Under Secretary for Health…

He highlighted that the VA’s use of two different EHR systems has created additional difficulties and complexities to security within the agency. Most VA hospitals currently still run on the Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture (VistA) while the VA has rolled out the new Oracle Cerner EHR to five VA hospitals in the past two years with more rollouts expected later this year.

“Right now, as you know, we’re dealing with two different EHRs currently in place in our system. And so we have to contend with those risks, instance by instance, and make sure that the entire network is secure,” Dr. Elnahal said… Read the full article here.