As the Department of Defense edges closer to choosing one lucky vendor to support its planned department-wide EHR system, IBM is doing some strategic shifting of its own by adding technology from its Watson supercomputer to its federal health care repertoire. With a new request for information (RFI) released by the DOD, asking for details about infrastructure requirements to replace its aging ALHTA system, the department is putting a contract valued around $11 billion up for grabs. Meanwhile, IBM has named a new Chief Medical Information Officer for its federal health division: Dr. Keith Salzman, whose long experience in government contracting and Army medical facilities may give Big Blue an edge to scoop up the DOD’s biggest health IT project in years.
Watson’s current forays into the healthcare sphere have focused mostly on clinical decision support, not record keeping, but IBM does dabble in EHR software with its Wellness Connection EHR from BlueWare. “You have to bring a lot to the table in federal health care,” Andrew Maner, IBM’s managing partner for its U.S. federal division, said to Bloomberg. “Watson is not going to implement an electronic medical-records solution, but it can be used to make clinicians better or more efficient.”
“Watson’s really good at that type of integration,” said Steve Gold, Vice President of the Watson Group, to EHRintelligence. “It can go against volumes of information. Helping doctors navigate the massive amount of information is so critical to improving the quality of care that they can then deliver. You want the system to get smarter, and Watson can do that. ”
But will Watson’s smarts be enough to solve the DOD’s ongoing health IT woes? Just one single contractor will be selected to supply the DOD with all its EHR needs, with a special focus on interoperability with the Department of Veterans Affairs. The long and torturous process of establishing a link between the two departments, which has stalled in the past two years as the departments bicker over the direction of the project, has angered lawmakers and industry hawks alike. The House Appropriations Committee recently approved a plan to withhold 75% of the funding requested for the project due to a lack of results, even as both the VA and DOD insist that they’re still moving forward.
IBM has not confirmed that they are angling for the contract yet, and Maner says the company wants to see details about the government’s needs before committing Watson or any other technology to such a massive and involved project. But with IBM’s government contract dollars slipping in recent years, and a golden opportunity both to appease Congress and help military personnel with their basic health needs on the table, adding Salzman to the team may be a key indicator that IBM is very interested.
The latest RFI follows a request issued in January that attempted to drum up feedback from commercial EHR vendors on what the DOD might need to serve its massive patient base. With 9.7 million beneficiaries, six major health centers, 45 hospitals and more than 750 clinics, not to mention international outposts and more than 300 warships, the challenges of designing and implementing a comprehensive EHR system are enormous.
“This process will help us as we write requirements and [private industry] as they align their solutions,” said Capt. John H. Windom in January. “There is nothing better than open and frequent communication with industry. We don’t want to set a requirement that is technologically unachievable by industry or [that] we can’t afford.”
