Interagency office put in charge of DoD/VA lifetime e-record project

Top leadership at the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments have assigned broad responsibilities for development of a lifetime electronic health and benefit record for military personnel and veterans to a relatively new interagency program office that lacks a director, according to an internal document obtained by Nextgov.

The new charter for the Defense/VA Interagency Program Office, formed in 2007 to shepherd development of interoperable health record systems, is "broad and breathtaking in scope," said Harold Gracey, who was VA chief of staff from 1994 to 1998 and now is with Vienna, Va.-based Topside Consulting.

In April, President Obama, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki announced plans to develop a Joint Virtual Lifetime Electronic Record, and the charter for the interagency program office details how that goal will be met.

The charter, signed on Sept. 24 by VA Deputy Secretary W. Scott Gould and on July 17 by Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn, expands the scope of the Interagency Program Office to include the sharing of electronic personnel and benefits records between the two departments.

Responsibilities include defining functional requirements and applying them to specifications for information technology systems. The office will coordinate the acquisition, budget and deployment strategies for the joint lifetime record and manage the program once it is up and running.

Katie Roberts, a VA spokeswoman, said the charter documents how VA and Defense will continue to work collaboratively to meet the two departments' data-sharing objectives.

The lifetime record, she said, will ensure a seamless transition from active duty to veteran status, so no veteran will experience a delay in services or benefits earned while serving their country because of red tape and paperwork.

According to Gracey, developing a lifetime record that would provide veterans with one source of health and benefit information through active duty and beyond is a laudable goal. "We have a set of special citizens that deserve the best the government can provide," he said.

But Gracey said the plans and missions detailed in the Interagency Program Office charter must be followed by action. "It's a big deal to put this on paper; it's an even bigger deal to do it," he said.

The first thing Defense and VA should do is find a permanent director who has the finesse to deal with the two largest bureaucracies in the government, said an industry source. The interim director, Rear Adm. Gregory Timberlake, will retire next week.

The charter's scope is wide but the language is weak, warned another industry source who said it gives Defense too much sway in development of the lifetime record.

The grand plans for the Interagency Program Office could fail unless its new director answers directly to top management at both VA and Defense, according to a government official who declined to be identified. The charter calls for the office to report to the director of the Defense Human Resource Activity, which is "at least four steps removed" from top Defense management, the official said.