Pentagon Extends Commercial Health Records Pilot to Fourth Site

The Defense Department’s upgrade of its military health records system reached another milestone over the weekend, with the announcement of its fourth and final pilot at the Madigan Army Medical Center.

Located in Tacoma, Washington, Madigan Army Medical Center is one of the largest military hospitals on the West Coast and represents the largest of four facilities the Defense Department will test the rollout of MHS Genesis, the commercial electronic health records software being developed by Leidos and Cerner.

Leidos received a $4.3 billion contract award in 2015—the deal could be worth as much as $9 billion over 18 years—to modernize the electronic health records systems for more than 9 million troops across Defense and its military branches.

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“Leidos is proud to support the Program Executive Office, Defense Healthcare Management Systems in its mission to transform the delivery of health care in the Military Health System and improve data sharing with other agencies, including Veterans Affairs, as well as private health institutions,” said Leidos Group President Jon Scholl, in a statement. “We remain committed to excellence in fulfilling our customers’ mission in deploying an EHR system that provides enhanced, secure technology to ensure mission readiness.”

Pilots of the MHS Genesis platform have been deployed at locations in Washington state, including Fairchild Air Force Base, Naval Hospital Bremerton and at Naval Health Clinic Oak Harbor.

The Veterans Affairs Department, too, is considering adopting technology developed by Leidos and Cerner in modernizing its electronic health records system. In June, Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin announced the agency wanted to issue a contract to the companies to develop the same platform Defense planned to use, in part to shore up interoperability between the two systems.