DoD health nominee says EHR development is a top priority

Dr. Jonathan Woodson, President Obama's nominee for assistant secretary of defense for health affairs--the top physician at the Pentagon--says that developing an advanced EHR at the Department of Defense is second in importance only to caring for wounded troops. Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Woodson called DoD's AHLTA system "a bit ahead" of EMRs at private hospitals, but said that as assistant secretary he would change AHLTA's focus from capturing administrative data to helping military clinicians make better decisions. He also promised to explore the idea of replacing AHLTA with a commercial product and said that if confirmed by the Senate, one of his first tasks would be to name a program manager to develop a new EHR. Article