U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Makes Interoperability Advancements to Improve Care for Veterans

Interoperability solution leverages InterSystems data platform technology to facilitate exchange of clinical data across the health system

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--To streamline care for the nation’s veterans, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has launched VDIF EP (Veterans Data Integration and Federation Enterprise Platform) to produce a longitudinal patient record by aggregating and normalizing clinical data across its existing electronic medical record systems, enabling interoperability. This has been a goal of VA for more than a decade because a longitudinal patient record enables clinicians to immediately use veterans’ clinical data from both VA and external providers, directly improving care for our nation’s veterans.

Based on InterSystems HealthShare®, VDIF aggregates and normalizes data from 130 different electronic medical record instances supporting 172 VA medical centers and 1,074 outpatient clinics. With VDIF, veterans’ longitudinal patient records are available to providers within Veterans Health Administration (VHA) as well as to external providers delivering care to Veterans. The latest version of HealthShare is built upon InterSystems IRIS for Health, the world’s first and only data platform specifically engineered to extract value from healthcare data.

A longitudinal patient record also enables veterans to take their entire care history with them when they seek care outside the Veterans Health Administration system – at a private hospital, for example. This is a realization of the 2018 MISSION Act, a law that streamlines veterans’ access to healthcare from outside providers.

The VDIF project was led by the VA Office of Information Technology (OIT), in conjunction with the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) together with Cambridge, Mass.-based InterSystems Corporation, with implementation by Ready Computing. VA now plans to connect dozens of clinical applications to VDIF.

With VDIF in place, clinicians can now access a veteran’s entire medical history from a single view, rather than sifting through multiple sites to find all the relevant clinical data. This streamlined ability to see a complete view of the patient, without wasting time searching for it, enables clinicians to keep their focus on their patients – exactly where it needs to be.

“InterSystems is proud to build on its 40-year partnership with VA to improve the delivery of care for Veterans and their families,” said George Hou, head of solutions for the Department of Veterans Affairs at InterSystems. “During this unprecedented healthcare crisis, providers are actively relying on clean, accurate, and complete healthcare data to deliver care to veterans.”

OIT’s goal is to provide Veterans with a seamless and beneficial VA experience. The implementation of VDIF is part of OIT’s Digital Transformation Strategy to maximize the impact on Veteran lives by providing unparalleled services and support.

About InterSystems

Established in 1978, InterSystems is the leading provider of data technology for extremely critical data in the healthcare, finance, and logistics sectors. Its cloud-first data platforms solve interoperability, speed, and scalability problems for large organizations around the globe. InterSystems also develops and supports unique managed services for hospital EMRs, unified care records for communities and nations, and laboratory information management systems. InterSystems is committed to excellence through its award-winning, 24x7 support for customers and partners in more than 80 countries. Privately held and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, InterSystems has 25 offices worldwide. For more information, please visit InterSystems.com.