Veterans Affairs plans to have its hospital clinicians start using a VA version of the DOD Joint Patient Tracking Application on Monday to keep tabs on wounded warriors evacuated from Afghanistan and Iraq, reports Bob Brewin of Government Executive. Edward Huycke, VA’s chief DOD coordination officer, told Brewin that all of VA’s 154 hospitals and more than 800 clinics will be able to review DOD medical records through the new Web-based Veterans Tracking Application. VA announced earlier this year that the two departments were developing a common electronic health record system. Lawmakers have expressed mounting skepticism that VA and DOD would ever share such data.
A new Air Force plan for how many fighters it needs in the next decade marks a sharp upturn from what it thought it needed just seven years ago. But analysts worry that the aspirational plan now in Congress' hands doesn’t make a tight enough connection to national strategy.
